The next day Thorin helped Farine and Michonne in the morning and afternoon, when he finished there was still time to raise the thatched roof of the second room, and he also had the plan to buy more salt to refine it and return to trade with Winchner, although that could wait since it would be too obvious that he had a way to refine the salt.
the 6 silver coins equaled 90 large copper coins, it was almost double what he had saved, trading with Winchner again was too lucrative to pass up.
"I will buy 10 pounds of salt that would be 40 large copper coins and 10 meters of rope, I would buy more chicken but it would be too suspicious" Thorin was somewhat upset about how to use the money and that the villagers would not doubt him.
without thinking more about it, Thorin went to the outskirts of the wall and bought everything he needed, the guy who sold the salt looked at him with doubt and was just as hostile as last time.
Although he didn't say anything to him when he saw that Thorin didn't give him an explanation and extended a sack towards him, the guy just snorted while he gave him the 10 pounds of salt.
Thorin wiped his sweat as he stepped away from this guy's face.
"It seems that it would be too suspicious if I buy salt from him again in large quantities, the only solution I can think of is to find a partner" Thorin said to himself in a low voice.
after that he bought 15 meters of rope for 30 large copper coins, having only 20 large copper coins left, he thought about buying another chicken but remembering Toms face, he decided to buy only what he was going to eat already cooked, this cost him 4 large copper coins.
He exchanged 6 large copper coins for 24 small copper coins and bought 15 more pounds of rye.
to finally return to his hut and leave things in it, already being late he went quickly to talk to Michonne and ask for the help of her brothers as well as hers and other children of the village.
Thorin promised them that he would give 2 small copper coins to the older ones and 1 small copper coin to the smaller ones as long as they help him collect the straw and make the bundles to make the roof.
most of these accepted and in just over 3 hours, the new room was already covered and with the mud dried on the surface, the children returned home happy with the money and having eaten rye porridge in the shack of Thorin.
the villagers used to be petty but the children were not to blame for this, so Thorin had no grudge against them, all the villagers went through the same hardships, and pettiness was nothing more than a self-preservation mechanism.
"Will you need my help?" Michonne looked at him as she put a hand on her side and tilted her head slightly trying to imitate Farine so her posture looked a bit comical.
"Thinking about it, it would be great if you help me, if everything goes well I will give you a part of what comes out of this business, come help me prepare the food for the mushrooms, the bark of the trunks will serve as sustenance" Thorin thought that It was a good idea to have Michonne as his first worker, so he guided her on how to keep the mushrooms alive.
In addition, he had gathered another 13 more in the morning so now he had 38 of these, Gerd needed the mushrooms moderately fresh so only the ones that had little to be cut were good for him.
the villagers used to cut them but they lost their effectiveness and it had never been proposed to reproduce them artificially, so they did not know about the cultivation process of these.
"that's OK?" Michonne asked looking at Thorin.
"Okay, let's get on with the others, when Gerd comes these will be fresh, and not only that but we'll probably have a continuous yield of them." Thorin nodded and continued organizing the mushrooms.
when they finished Michonne said goodbye at sunset and another day had finally passed.
at night Thorin refined the 10 pounds of salt but this time as it was a greater quantity of salt and he did not want to burn it so he had to leave it in a liquid state and let the water evaporate little by little, only leaving some stones and hot embers below the casserole.
.....
And so the next week went by, splitting firewood with Farine in the morning, gathering mushrooms at breakfast time, raffling charcoal at noon, and practicing martial arts with Granpa Chuyi in the afternoon, sometimes building a third and fourth room around the side of his bedroom, these being dedicated to mushrooms.
"If it's 8 pounds then Mr. Wenchner will give me 32 silver coins... but, can I trust him?" Thorin was lying on his bed which now had new straws left over from the thatched roofs.
32 silver coins was a considerable amount of money, it was enough for a family of 5 to survive for 1 year, figuratively it was the equivalent of 10,000 dollars in his past life, for an orphan kid to carry that was impossible.
No matter how noble character Wenchner had, it was difficult to say if he would be tempted by this amount of money, the strength, as well as the social position of both, was as disparate as heaven and hell.
"sigh, it's best to take it easy, I'm already learning Black Warrior Martial arts, old Chuyi said that it would take him 5 years to lay the foundations to use Prana optimally, he shouldn't want to run before he can walk" Thorin turned around and gave himself a halfhearted reassurance.
Making that decision, he spent the next week pushing himself where he should and taking old Chuyi's training seriously.
...
Toms had his gloomy face looking at his 3 sons, Etred was the eldest son at 16, he was just a bottomless barrel, he was 6'3" and weighed over 220lbs.
his 14-year-old second child was almost the same size as his older brother.
the youngest daughter of 11 years old, she was more delicate, but she still had a strong character and no matter how much he hit her, she did what she wanted.
She got used to running to her aunt's house and sometimes he didn't even see her for months.
"You two useless things! All you know how to do is eat, eat and eat! Am I raising pigs? Weren't you supposed to scare away that loud-mouthed bitch Farine? And what are you doing? Going with your friends from the other villages to lose the time, you can't even bring something to eat from the hands of the weaklings from the other villages." Toms slammed the chair on the dirt floor in fury.
both brothers just looked at each other opening their mouths in a mental block, they gave a funny look but they were aggressive and cruel once they were not in front of their father.
Mirana, for her part, crossed her arms and pouted her nose, she was barely 11 years old but she did not take her father or anyone in the village seriously, her idea was to marry some famous blacksmith in the city and live within the walls, she had a terribly mature mentality for someone her age.
"And you! You only know how to learn from your brother to be a damn pig! You won't be better than him ever, you're supposed to learn to chop wood with me every morning but what do you do? You go and follow your brother, damn! He must be a blacksmith and the other inherit my job as a woodcutter, but no, everyone does what they want" Toms said swallowing his anger so they wouldn't be heard screaming throughout the village, but that worked poorly.
"And you, what are you supposed to do all day at your aunts' house? You should help your mother around the house and wait for me to find you a husband..." Toms said pointing to his daughter.
but she did not take him seriously and ran out of the house with a face of displeasure at everyone in the village.
"You are all useless!" Miranda screamed as she left the village and did not give a good face to anyone, seeing Thorin she turned her eyes, 'this was the worst of the useless' she thought.
"..." Thorin didn't say anything and went to invite Michonne since Gerd was supposed to go to collect the mushrooms.
in those 2 weeks, they had managed to collect about 120 of them and 90 of them had successfully survived the transplant to Thorin's hut.
now it only remained for him to come and pay them what was due, 182 large copper coins.
"Is my family a public show? Get lost Thorin! Nobody invited you here! And leave Michonne alone, she's my wife! I'm warning you for the last time!" Etred said with hatred having been humiliated by his sister, and seeing Thorin working with Michonne for the last 2 weeks.
Thorin frowned, squeezing his hand, and feeling that his strength was greater than before, he dared to reply to Etred who was more than a head taller than him and twice as heavy as his.
"You don't warn me about anything, Etred, Michonne and I are just friends, besides you're just a nuisance to her, her being your wife are just illusions you have in your head" Thorin said angrily to which Etred looked at him with his eyes full of fury and aggressive mania.
"Etred, come in at once! You fight so much with Thorin, he's like part of our family, there shouldn't be any misunderstandings between the family, do you understand?" Toms came out smiling, but his face was red and the veins on his temples showed.
"..., father..." Etred said looking at him with the same look she looked at Thorin, to which Toms did not take it with pleasure.
Paaa
a hit resounded in the village.
"Let it be a lesson boy, what I say is done" Toms said without changing his face after punching Etred in the face.
"Y-yes father" Etred looked down without seeing his father again because his eyes were still full of fury and anger.
before entering the house he gave Thorin a look, the desire to split in 2 and jump over Thorin's body made his blood boil, unlike his father Etred did not hide his intentions.
Thorin looked back at him, his eyes were calm as a lake and deep as the sea, there was no feeling in them, but a resolute idea was given in his mind.
'this village cannot accommodate the two of us' Thorin thought about this calmly and completely rationally, unlike Etred's animalistic feelings of rage, they had both come to the same conclusion.
the difference is that Thorin thought coldly and his mind was made up to the idea of planning the death of someone in his community, with infinite coldness and ruthlessness, while Etred was an irrational primal hatred that took the power of his mind, the 2 years of conflict between the 2 were already intractable.
Thorin continued on his way while his mind was occupied, to finally reach Michonne's house and before knocking on the door, she came out with a smile on her face which was strange.
The responsibility of caring for her mother, as well as her siblings, had made her mature prematurely and this was seen as a job that she would have to do for a long time.
"Is something wrong? Your face is scary." Michonne asked as she widened her eyes.
"It's okay, Gerd is supposed to come today, do you want to go wait for him? He usually comes before noon, if he's going to come, he shouldn't be long" Thorin didn't tell her about Etred and said with a slight smile.
"ok, I'll come with you, you promised me 10% and that would help all of us in my family, helping with the roof of the rooms made my brothers unable to sleep for 3 days from the emotion." Michonne closed the door and accompanied him, as they left the village Michonne felt a look on the back of her neck, she turned around but she didn't see anything.
she just rubbed the back of her neck and continued towards Thorin's hut.
.....
"Hey! So you've got a date, dude! I hope and I haven't been too late for the wedding, if you have a baptism for your children don't forget to invite old Gerd!" a gruff voice reached them as they were about to reach Thorin's hut.
"I was already telling myself, what would be the reason for the expansion of your hut?, Thorin, haha how fast you grow" Gerd laughed happily again without waiting for Thorin to answer.
"Stop talking nonsense Gerd, I have a surprise for you that you would not expect, more surprising than your bad jokes" Thorin said as he went to the hut.
He already wanted to see Gerd's face when he saw the mushrooms prepared for him, even if he didn't have money to pay for them, he could always sell the formula to make the medicine they were used in.