Chapter 234 – Precious Gift
Laura quickly left the carriage after she saw the few Big Bellied Pig tribesmen and hastily greeted them, “Fellow Pig tribe friends, we are a Terran merchant clan. We are not malicious people, so please let your faithful dogs return to the sides of their masters.”
The Big Bellied Pig tribesmen saw Laura standing beside the caravan. One Pig tribesman who seemed to be the leader quickly placed his sheep skull hammer down and returned Laura’s greeting, “Dear Terran businesswoman, please forgive our rudeness. As you may know, here in the prairie I must ensure the safety of my tribesmen.”
After he said those words, he shouted twice and had the faithful dogs return to their side.
Laura was currently out of the carriage when a few Pig tribesmen jumped off their mounts and walked towards Laura. When the distance between the two sides had decreased to a few meters apart, Laura formally greeted the Pig tribesmen and said, “Taoyuan Business Association[1] Chairwoman, Laura, has seen the brave warriors of the Pig tribe.”
The Pig tribesman was very polite as he bowed towards Laura, saying, “Big Bellied Pig tribe, Sheep-Head Hammer horde[2] chief, Spear[3], has seen the beautiful lady Laura.”
Spear’s body was around 2 meters tall, which made the 1.8 meter tall Laura in front of him look like a child. He was, however, very polite, and Zhao Hai’s impression of him became subconsciously more favorable.
Laura smiled. “Honorable chief Spear, me and my caravan wishes to stay the night at your camp. I wonder if you will allow us?”
“Haha,” Spear laughed. “Beautiful lady Laura, this matter is something we also wish for with earnesty. Please, everyone in the carriage, come along with us to our camp. I will kill a good argali and will make some milk tea and milk wine. We will entertain you with the best food we have.”
Laura smiled and said, “Thank you, generous chief Spear. Chief, please go first.”
Spear saluted Laura and turned his mount around to hurry back towards the camp. Laura and the others, however, returned to their carriage.
Zhao Hai watched the distant Pig tribesmen before turning to Laura. “Will they really kill an argali and wait for us?”
Laura smiled. “They will. The beastfolk here in the prairies welcome us merchants warmly. So long as one doesn’t have any ill intent, they will be very hospitable. Brother Hai, take out some vegetables. With regards to them, there is no better gift than vegetables.”
Zhao Hai nodded and took out some vegetables to place them on the carriages. The vegetables came from the Space, so they were all as fresh as if they’d just been harvested.
After making the preparations, Laura and the caravan moved slowly towards the Sheep-Head Hammer horde. With regards to the Sheep-Head Hammer horde’s strange name, Laura wasn’t that surprised. Within the Beastfolk Prairie, there were many such strange names. Don’t even speak about Sheep-Head Hammer, there was also a horde called Sheep-Dung. Laura didn’t feel this was that strange.
They didn’t need to wait very long before several argali came out of the horde’s campsite. These argali were ones they had grown themselves. On the backs of these argali sat Big Bellied Pig tribe children.
The children all looked over ten years old and wore leather clothing. With their big bellies and silly, small heads, they looked adorable.
The children ran up to Laura’s carriage. They looked curiously at Laura and Zhao Hai, who was wearing his magic robe. Then the tallest child went to the carriage and courteously said to Laura, “Honorable businesswoman, my father asked me to lead you.” Evidently, this was Spear’s child.
Laura smiled and immediately replied, “Adorable young warriors, please lead the way.”
Perhaps it was because Laura called them ‘young warriors’ that the little Pig children became happy. These children with small bellies walked happily in front of the carriage.
For the beastfolk, warriors were important. Once they were commended by the other party and were called a warrior, it would make them very happy. This was Laura’s first contact with the beastfolk, so she tried this with the children. It seemed that the idea was very effective.
Laura watched the children, then turned to Zhao Hai and said, “You can try to praise them as warriors, but no matter how cute they are you cannot touch their heads. If you do so, they will become angry. Also, when you are offered to drink wine by them, you cannot say no. It is considered impolite towards the host. Furthermore, if they give you a gift, then no matter what you must accept. Otherwise, the host will think you are looking down on him.”
Zhao Hai nodded. These were things that could be considered taboo among the beastfolk. As such, they must naturally remember this. They didn’t want any minor matter to suddenly turn into a big conflict with the beastfolk.
They soon arrived at the Sheep-Head Hammer horde camp. Spear stood waiting for them. Beside Spear were three Big Bellied Pig tribe young girls. Each of these girls carried a bowl of wine.
This was the first time Zhao Hai had seen a Pig tribe young girl. These Pig tribe young girls had a stature that wasn’t much different from Laura’s. Their bellies didn’t bulge, but their bodies were plump and they wore leather skirts. Although they did have the head of a pig, when compared to Spear it was smaller. They looked very cute, especially with their long hair. Their hair had some accessories in them, and although they had pig heads they didn’t look disgusting[4].
Laura took the lead as they left the carriage and stood in front of Spear. Spear smiled and said, “Beautiful young lady, please drink this wine as a symbol of friendship between you and our Sheep-Head Hammer horde.” After a wave of his hand, those three Pig tribe young girls immediately moved forward.
Laura didn’t dare be impolite and immediately received the bowl of wine from the young girl’s hand. She drank a mouthful and then spilled some wine on the ground. This was one of the beastfolk’s special accommodations for women. A woman must drink some of the wine from the bowl, then raise the bowl and sprinkle it on the ground. On the other hand, a man must raise the bowl of wine and drink it all.
After drinking from three bowls of wine, Laura’s face appeared ruddy. This, to Zhao Hai, made her appear gorgeous. Spear and the other Pig tribesmen didn’t understand how to appreciate such a sight, however. In their eyes, all Terran women looked the same. Although Spear had called Laura a beautiful lady, it was just a form of courtesy.
The beastfolk proposed a toast to those who deserved respect and could lead. Others wouldn’t have such an accommodation. Therefore, Zhao Hai didn’t drink the wine Spear had.
After drinking, Laura turned to Spear and said, “Honorable chief, please allow my servants to establish tents. Also, please do not prepare so much food as my servants are all undead. They don’t need to eat anything.”
Spear gawked and examined the zombies standing next to the carriage. Soon he found that these zombies were quite different. He didn’t care much, however, as he nodded and said, “Alright then. Beautiful young lady, please.”
Laura turned and looked at Zhao Hai, who then nodded and waved his hand. Immediately after, those undead began to construct their own camp. They made the camp close to the Sheep-Head Hammer horde camp. The undead Zhao Hai had brought were the ones that had originally been led by Alodia. Alodia himself was also among the undead. When they had killed some, most of them were ordinary caravan coachmen and servants. They weren’t unfamiliar with building a camp, so under Zhao Hai’s order they made good time.
Spear saw Zhao Hai wave his hand. To be honest, Spear didn’t have a favorable first impression of Zhao Hai. Since Zhao Hai wore a black magic robe, he felt that Zhao Hai exuded a gloomy aura which made Zhao Hai disagreeable[5].
At this time, several undead brought forward a few piles of fresh vegetables. Laura smiled at Spear and said, “Honorable chief, please accept my small gift.”
The vegetables were fresh. Moreover, there was a wide variety of them that filled the baskets. They appeared supple and tender, and Spear’s eyes shone. With regards to the beastfolk, such green goods were rare good items.
Spear wasn’t polite as he smiled and said to Laura, “Thank you, beautiful and generous young lady. These vegetables, to us, is really expensive. Please, come to my tent. My wife made fragrant milk tea.”
Laura wasn’t polite as she walked towards the largest tent in the middle of the camp with Spear. The vegetables, on the other hand, had been received by Spear. Zhao Hai wanted to laugh. Those vegetables were just ordinary vegetables and weren’t worth much.
He knew that the beastfolk lived in a prairie, so adding in the fact that only grassland occupied the land, they were unable to plant any vegetables. As such, the vegetables were mostly brought by Terran merchants. Since they can’t preserve them well, they wouldn’t be able to see vegetables all year round. Sometimes, if they were lucky, they’d be able to dig up some wild herbs in the prairie. As such, these produce became rare food for them.
Laura had given them a lot of vegetables. With regards to Spear, this was really precious. Therefore, his respect for Laura increased by a lot.
Spear led the group of people into a tent. Inside the tent were Pig tribe women wearing fur-lined robes as they moved around busily. When the two women saw Spear come in, they greeted the group hastily. Zhao Hai and the others also returned the greeting and carefully looked around the tent.
There was a pillar in the middle of the tent that supported the roof. The walls were made with animal skin and wool blankets that were surrounded by wood and animal bones to help maintain the warmth inside. The ground was covered with carpets. Near the center of the tent was a pit wherein a flame had been lit inside. On top of it was a copper pot that was being heated. The aroma of milk tea came out of the pot.
Spear asked his visitors to sit down. Each of the visitors was given a bowl of steaming hot milk tea. Zhao Hai and the others drank some and found that it was actually very fragrant. The tea didn’t seem to be the same type of tea Zhao Hai knew of, but was instead from a plant he didn’t know about. The taste wasn’t the same as tea leaves, but the milk tea was really delicious. There wasn’t any sort of fishy smell from it, so it seemed that something had been added to it. It had a slightly salty taste and a thick aroma. It was smooth and tasted great.
Notes:
-This chapter was MTL’ed. Please leave a comment for constructive criticisms and advice. Thanks.
-Please support the author if you love this novel.
-Please check out the Editor’s footnotes, thanks.
Footnotes:
[1] The raws says 商会, which can also mean Chamber of Commerce, but a chamber of commerce really doesn’t match the context. A chamber of commerce is “a local association to promote and protect the interests of the business community in a particular place.” As such, I used the more literal definition, which is Business Association/Society/Union. ↩
[2] As you may have noticed, we have so many levels of beastfolk that it gets confusing. For now, we’ll try and see if this way works: Beastfolk ‘Race’. Fragrant Pig ‘Ethnic Race’. Big Bellied Pig ‘Tribe’. And then Sheep-Head Hammer ‘Horde’. ↩
[3] 斯皮尔 – Sī pí’ěr. Yea, his name is Spear… though he uses a hammer… ↩
[4] This was a scary description… Author needs to provide pics, else I can’t imagine them. I just keep thinking of Miss Piggy. ↩
[5] Raw says 讨厌, which can range from hate/disgust to something more mellow like disagreeable… I decided not to make him super antagonistic…