CHAPTER 329: 233 CHAPTER BLACK FOX FUR_3

Ah Man didn’t push for it either—anyway, that black fox fur Zapinon would have to give her sooner or later. If he didn’t, she’d just kidnap his daughter back to Wanjin to pay off the debt. No need to rush. She went straight over, flipped open the straw mat on the sled, and said with full confidence, "I brought three times as much stuff as last time. Our leader is the richest man in the world—Wanjin has loads of good things."

The supply ships from Wanjin had arrived, and according to the needs of Yakushima Island, they delivered three full boatloads of goods to Ah Man’s temporary camp—enough for the few small tribes she had contact with to use for a long time.

The hunters immediately came forward to inspect and found heaps of grain and cloth on the sleds, bundles of arrows, and quite a bit of alcohol. There was some salt too, but not much—after all, Ah Man had already traded for a fair amount of refined salt nearby, so the demand for salt among the local tribes had dropped sharply for the time being.

Zapion pulled out an arrow and rubbed it for a moment, feeling that Wanjin was still as reliable as ever. All the goods were, as always, of excellent quality—even the arrows were all identical, every shaft the same length and thickness as if they’d come from the same mold, which was really rare. For a hunter, this meant a lot—no need to worry about differences between arrows. It saved them energy and improved their hit rate considerably.

As for grain and such, there was no need to say more. That stuff could be stored long term for disasters and emergencies, and was invaluable to tribes living by gathering and hunting. The high-quality, brightly colored cotton was especially unique to Wanjin, much loved by the women—even those who never wore cloth before now started wanting it for themselves.

"All good stuff!" Zapinon exclaimed after checking everything, but then, looking at his tribe’s pile of furs, felt a bit regretful—they didn’t have enough to trade for so much.

Ah Man was great at reading faces. Just one look and she knew what he was thinking, so she swept her hand generously and said, "Alright, Old Zap, don’t do this—you see, I’ve brought all this over, it’s all yours. I’ll even give you a 20% discount compared to last time. If you still can’t pay it off, just take your time—you guys use the stuff first."

"Really?" Zapinon was overjoyed, giving Ah Man a hard slap on the back, all smiles, "You really are a great friend of us Zair people. On our Zair land, you can always walk freely—everyone will treat you like an honored guest!"

"Yeah, yeah, enough of that useless crap—let’s get to the real stuff!" Ah Man, after being generous, wasn’t shy about it at all and spoke bluntly, "Forget the furs for now—just give me all the ones you have. I also want feathers—if you guys have any spare, hand those over too. And then, that thing you talked about last time... what about the Ikku? You said they’ve got Gold Sand. You have to help me find them—I want to trade for the Gold Sand they have!"

"The Ikku—they’re farther north. You have to cross the big mountains and travel near the big river before you might run into them." Zapinon didn’t think Ah Man’s requests were excessive at all—this was already way better than the Lizi Family, at least Ah Man always delivered what she promised—big quantities, great quality, very generous and sincere. So the Zair people couldn’t act stingy; helping a friend get things done was only right.

Besides, the Ikku weren’t doing any better than they were; Gold Sand couldn’t be eaten or drunk—if they could get grain, arrows, cloth, salt, or alcohol for it, they would be thrilled.

He thought it over and said, "Stay here for a while and watch the weather. When it’s right, I’ll go with you over the mountain—we’ll definitely find them."

"Alright, let’s go—take me to your place first!" Ah Man climbed onto the sled, gesturing for Zapinon to lead the way. She grumbled, "Next time you guys move, can you send someone to tell me? It’s a pain in the ass trying to find you every time."

Zapinon gave up on deer hunting—not as important as hauling the goods home. He hopped up onto the sled with Ah Man, squeezing together for warmth, and said casually, "There’s only three or four spots anyway—you stay here for a year or two and you’ll know them all. Most of our winter places are in that valley."

"I don’t want to stay here another year or two. Other than ice and beasts, there’s nothing here—so boring!" Ah Man said bluntly, critiquing Zapinon’s hometown right to his face. She fished out a little flask from her coat, took a sip, and passed it over, muttering, "You really ought to come see Wanjin—it’s way more comfortable than here, and the life’s just better. The only thing this place has going for it is drinking whenever you want. The rest is all shit."

With no A Qing or Harano around to keep her in check, she could finally drink however much she wanted. The liquor brought from Wanjin—she used her status to "taste test for spoilage" as an excuse to snatch a few barrels into her own quarters, a little private stash. But after half a year, even that got boring. She started missing the games of wit with Harano and A Qing again.

The booze only tasted special when she had to get it past Harano and A Qing—when it was easy to drink as much as she pleased, it lost all its thrill.

"Wanjin, huh..." Zapinon wasn’t offended. He took the little flask and had a swig too, feeling the new batch of liquor was even stronger, sighing out a puff of white breath, comfortably mellow.

Among friends, insults didn’t matter. Besides, Ah Man had always talked up Wanjin in front of him—she wanted to go back, and every time she visited the tribe she’d tell the people stories about it. Lots of kids began dreaming of Wanjin—even if they couldn’t imagine what "spring all year round" was like or understand what prosperity really meant.

They chattered and sipped along the way, following Zapinon’s lead, winding through wilderness and hills, twisting into the mountains. After more than an hour, they finally arrived at the Zair Tribe’s winter valley—every autumn, they’d store food in caves, then stay there through winter. When it warmed up, they’d leave again, moving to places better suited for foraging.

Usually, they’d go to riverbanks, hillsides, wetlands and such by the season—to gather berries, wild greens, fish or hunt otters.

This time was different from before—whenever Ah Man came with goods, this tribe of nearly a thousand would always pour out, men, women, and children, delighted—or at least they’d come out to see the excitement. But now, only a few women and kids came to the valley’s mouth at the sound, and none of them looked particularly happy.

This was easy to spot. According to Ainu custom, women painted their lips large with colors—the girls light red, married women bright red, elders light purple or deep purple (the latter only the wizard could wear). Everyone, when smiling, looked like they had a giant mouth taking up half their face—a bit scary, but whether they were happy was obvious at a glance.

But now, the women at the valley entrance had relatively small, normal-looking lips. None of them were smiling.

Ah Man’s bean-shaped brows bunched together immediately—it was obvious something had happened here.