It was like the places in the countryside of the old world where cash crops such as garlic shoots were grown on a large scale. Wholesalers would always come around from house to house to buy the produce.

For the villagers of Lusaka Village, a small clearing at the entrance to the village was the designated buying spot. The villagers had packed their red peppers into bags early that morning, then loaded them onto handcarts and pushed them over to the clearing.

“Look, look! The quality of my red peppers is way better than everyone else’s. Just look at their size and color! I used a lot more fertilizer this year, and I took better care of them, too. Two and a half copper coins apiece. How about it?”

“Come on, ma’am. You can’t be serious. If I pay that much for yours, what am I supposed to offer everyone else? Don’t tell me your quality’s better. Everyone says their own produce is the best. Same price as before: two copper coins. Otherwise, find someone else to buy them. After transport and labor, I barely make anything off your goods as it is.”

Conversations like that could be heard everywhere. It was one of the few lively times in the village.

“Tori, you came out with your mom, too?” The woman next door looked a little puzzled. Usually, kids couldn’t wait to sneak out and play while their parents were away. Most of them wouldn’t come along.

Tori answered politely and sensibly, “My dad’s not home, and it’d be too hard for Mom to do it alone. I want to help her, too.”

“What a thoughtful girl you are, Tori!” The woman crouched down and hugged her, rubbing her cheek against Tori’s. “I wish my boy were this sensible. All he does is play all day!”

Tori and her mother weren’t in a hurry. They didn’t have much stamina, and pushing the handcart was tiring. They made their way to the clearing at an easy pace.

Then they couldn’t be bothered to haggle. Two copper coins per red pepper—take it or leave it. They quickly sold them all, then immediately rushed off for another load.

After all, one handcart wasn’t enough to carry a whole year’s harvest.

They made five trips in all. In the end, they’d earned over fifty silver coins and more than three thousand copper coins. Her mother planned to go to town another day and exchange the copper coins for silver, but she’d have to wait until Tori’s father came home.

That was the year’s harvest. For the rest of the year, they’d tend to the red peppers and help them grow. They’d gather all the vegetables from the garden and store them in the cellar, then plant a little grain.

“After this year’s expenses, and with next year’s budget added in… Tori, we have enough for your tuition. But as for living expenses…” Mom counted the copper coins, struggling a little to calculate the family’s expenses and what they had left.

She rubbed Tori’s head with a helpless smile. “I can’t treat you to anything nice. We’ll have to be careful with our money.”

Tori put her hands on her hips, looking rather pleased with herself. “Then it’s my turn to treat you, Mom!” She pulled a little cloth pouch from her waist. It looked a bit flat.

“Hehe! I made quite a bit of money from my ice mint, too!” the girl said proudly. “It was supposed to be five copper coins per plant, but that merchant didn’t expect to run into any by chance, so he was willing to pay six each. I sold eighteen plants, so that’s one silver coin and eight copper coins!”

She tipped the money out of the pouch. One silver coin stood out among the rest.

“Hehe~ Now we can have a proper meal! My treat, Mom!”

Her mother pulled her into a tight hug. “You little—” Her voice caught. “Oh…”

She was a mother, but she was still only in her twenties. Her child’s gesture moved her deeply. She felt that Tori was a precious gift from heaven.

The mother and daughter had said they were going to have something nice, but in the end, they bought a piece of meat and plenty of seasonings. They spent sixty of Tori’s copper coins, cooked up a feast, and treated themselves to a wonderful meal.

“Tori, are you sure this is okay? You worked so hard to earn that money.”

“I’ll earn more!”

Little Tori spoke like a grown-up. Her mother seemed to see a glimpse of Tori’s father in her daughter. She couldn’t believe how reliable her little girl was.

For some reason, she felt a peaceful drowsiness come over her. The afternoon sun was warm, but she soon fell into a deep sleep all the same.

Once Tori saw that her mother had fallen asleep, she wilted like a frost-bitten eggplant.

She actually felt pretty bad about spending the money.

How should she put it?

If we’re talking about nothing but survival, a person who only wants to stay alive can get by on a loaf of bread and a cup of water a day. It’d be miserable, of course, but at the absolute lowest cost, a person could survive on four or five copper coins a day. If the Magic Academy provided room and board… then you wouldn’t have to spend a single coin.

If they provided room but not meals, then three loaves of bread a day would cost six copper coins.

Sixty copper coins could keep someone alive for ten days.

Of course, you couldn’t calculate the cost of living like that. But college students these days had probably all considered this sort of thing at some point. Like when there were ten days left in the month, and they’d spend two yuan per meal on rice, then live off free soup to make their money last. A miracle of surviving ten days.

There was no point thinking about that.

The miserable experiences of her previous life had taught Tori that just saving money wasn’t a very reliable plan. You never knew when something unexpected might happen.

You couldn’t get rich by farming or working a regular job. If you really wanted to make money, you had to go into business and create a monopoly… Maybe that wasn’t a very suitable topic right now.

But Tori wasn’t in a position to do that yet. The biggest problem was her lack of knowledge.

Moon grass sold for one copper coin per plant, red peppers for two copper coins each, and ice mint for five copper coins per plant. Those were the only three things she knew she could sell for money. What else was there?

Knowledge was the most precious thing. A monopoly on technology was the most profitable—Potions, for example. She’d heard that Potion Makers guarded their recipes like their lives depended on it. In any case, no one in the village knew anything about Potions.

Maybe someone did.

Tori thought of the village chief. His skill at growing red peppers alone was enough to show how much he knew. She’d heard the old chief had some kind of connection to the lord. She didn’t know the details, but…

The old guy might just drop some loot.

…

“Grandpa Chief!~” a little girl’s sweet voice rang out from inside the village chief’s house. “Are you home?”

A sprightly old man came out of the house. He looked sharp and capable. Unlike many old people who got heavier as they aged, he was still as thin as a bamboo pole. “Oh, it’s Tori. What is it? Does your mother need my help with something?”

He clearly thought Tori’s mother had sent her over.

Tori shook her head. “Grandpa Chief, I came to ask you something.”

“Something?”

He opened the door and let Tori in. Once they were inside, he brought out a few little baked cookies. “I baked these for my grandson earlier. You know the boy—he’s always running around outside, and he didn’t finish them. Don’t mind if they’re a little stale.”

Tori acted just like a child her age, unable to resist the cookies. She quickly picked one up and put it in her mouth, then gave him an embarrassed look. “Um, Grandpa Chief, I’m a little hungry.”

“That’s all right. Go ahead and eat.” The old man smiled kindly. Who could begrudge an eight-year-old girl a cookie?

He sat down across from Tori. “So, little Tori, what did you want to ask your grandpa?”

Tori blinked. “I heard you know a whole lot, Grandpa Chief!” She swept her hands around in a big circle, as if to show that all his knowledge was as vast as the space she’d outlined.

“Oh, you’ve been listening to Xilika!” Xilika was Tori’s mother. “Grandpa just knows a few things. I wouldn’t say I know a whole lot.”

He said that, but the grin spreading across his face said plenty about how he really felt.

“Still, I can probably answer most of your questions.”

Tori hesitated. She knew this conversation had reached a crucial point. What could she say to make the old man share some genuinely useful knowledge—something that could help her make real money?

“Mom says I’ll be going to the Magic Academy next year. But I saw how Fosse changed after he went to the Academy. He doesn’t play with us anymore. So, Grandpa Chief, can you tell me what happens when you go to the Magic Academy?”

The village chief froze for a moment. The smile slowly faded from his face, turning gentle. “Tori, I’ve encouraged everyone to grow red peppers so they can afford to attend the Magic Academy. But going to the Magic Academy may not necessarily be a good thing for you. This might be a little too much for you to understand right now, but since you’ve asked, I’ll answer.”

He paused, then said a very simple word.

“Struggle.”

“At that clearing, the people who can talk a good game can sell their red peppers for more. That’s one kind of struggle. Several villages around ours grow moon grass, while we grow red peppers. That’s another kind of struggle—or a way of avoiding one. And when you go to the Magic Academy, you’ll learn that you’ll face struggles of all kinds. Some out in the open, some in secret. Some mild, some fierce. If you can’t handle them, you’ll end up like that boy Fosse.”

Tori stared at him, but she didn’t seem to understand much of what the village chief was saying. His words were far too profound for a child her age.

The village chief sighed. “Maybe this is a little complicated for you. You probably won’t understand until you actually start school. But you’re clever. You knew to come and ask me. That’s much smarter than what most kids your age do. They’re full of hopes and dreams for the future, but they never stop to think about how to reach it. You can come ask me whenever you like,” he said. “If you do well at the Magic Academy, that’ll be good for the village, too. So you can come see me anytime. I’ll have some cookies ready for you.”

Tori secretly breathed a sigh of relief. The old village chief really was a learned man, with an air of mystery about him. Though maybe he was just an old man who’d once attended the Magic Academy, with plenty of life experience…

Still, being a little girl was pretty useful—at least a lot more useful than she’d been in her previous life. Back then, she probably would’ve had to offer two packs of cigarettes before an old man like the village chief would even talk to her. And she certainly wouldn’t have gotten any cookies.