"Dragonborn Village..."
Ed muttered the name, turning the old man's tone over in his mind. He felt there was more to this.
Although the old man sounded sarcastic, everything he said, openly or otherwise, expressed his envy of that village.
What could make a village earn undisguised rejection and envy from other villages at the same time as it changed its name?
Thinking of the name "Dragonborn," perhaps the villagers there had stumbled upon some fortuitous encounters.
Although he had taken the wrong road, Ed had finally obtained the information he needed.
He glanced back at the steadily darkening sky, then looked at the old man before him.
"It's getting so late. Would it be possible to stay at your place for the night?"
A flicker of surprise crossed the old man's face, and then he fell silent.
Seeing this, Ed quickly took two silver coins from his pocket and held them out to the old man. These, too, were part of the last Baron Tur's family inheritance.
Although he knew nothing about this world's monetary system or purchasing power, two pure silver coins ought to buy a peaceful night's sleep.
The old man looked at the two gleaming coins and shook his head.
"It's not about money, young man. Come inside and take a look first. If you can stomach it, you can stay. I won't charge you."
With that, the old man pulled the door open and stepped aside. Ed entered the wooden house with a little wariness.
Hunched over, the old man adjusted the filthy, tattered blanket draped over him and said hoarsely:
"Besides, we stopped using things like silver coins here more than twenty years ago."
That startled Ed. For a moment, he thought this medieval village had already developed to the point where it no longer needed money.
But after a little thought, Ed found a more likely explanation:
In a settlement with a small population, barter was clearly more common than monetary transactions. Besides, the baron had been dead for over fifty years. Without a ruler in the territory, it would be difficult to establish a uniform standard of value.
So he asked:
"I should still pay you for letting me stay. What do people in Upperstream Village use these days?"
A somewhat self-mocking smile appeared on the old man's face.
"These days, we use..."
His tattered blanket slipped off, revealing a small, withered yellow tree rooted in his hunched back.
"Tree seeds."
The instant Ed saw the man living in symbiosis with a tree, his instinct was to give the old fellow a taste of his spear.
He could stab a level 1 old bastard like this to death even without a spearhead! He didn't believe for a second that this village had nothing to do with the Tree Worship Church.
But according to the usual game conventions from his previous life, there were still two steps before the fighting started: a story cutscene and a health bar reveal.
As for running away, the thought never even crossed Ed's mind, because this was obviously one of those "rooms you can't leave unless you XX" situations. (Note: XX meant killing the opponent.)
Unexpectedly, however, the old man neither revealed a health bar nor assumed a fighting stance. Instead, he sat wearily on the edge of the bed.
"You haven't run even after seeing this. You're a bold one, outlander. Most people would have fled out of sight by now after seeing an old man like me in this state.
"Since you're not afraid, sleep here tonight. I don't have anything worth stealing anyway, so I'll leave you be."
Not only did I not want to run, I actually wanted to gobble up that EXP package, Ed thought. But sensing the old man's goodwill, he ultimately sat down on a small wooden stool beside the bed.
"Sir, what... what happened to your back?"
Ed realized he had been mistaken. This wasn't a boss fight; he had entered a story sequence.
The old man patted his back, and the tree moved twice as though it had come alive.
Ed then saw muscles in different parts of the old man's body begin twitching simultaneously.
Through the plant perception granted by the [Verdant Crown], Ed could vaguely sense that the tree had already sunk its roots into the old man's flesh and internal organs, and was continually becoming more active, like a cordyceps fungus about to burst out of its host.
The old man was probably somewhat younger than he looked, too. He had only ended up like this because the tree had drawn away too many nutrients.
Ed's expression immediately grew grave. It seemed not all symbiosis was as harmonious as what he shared with Little Green.
"The clergy of the Tree Worship Church planted this. Everyone over ten in Upperstream Village and Midstream Village has one."
The old man tapped his back and let out a breath as he spoke slowly.
Listening to his tone, Ed felt something was off, as though this was no big deal at all to the old man...
He felt he had grasped the key to the plot.
"Were you forced into it?"
The old man froze for a moment, then hurriedly shook his head.
"No, no. We couldn't have wanted it more."
Couldn't have wanted it more... Ed felt even more confused.
As though noticing his confusion, the old man explained:
"Young man, I don't know where you came from, but here in the Barony of Tur, at least, it became hard to find food without toxins after the Mana Tide.
"The missionaries of the Tree Worship Church told us back then that if we planted tree seeds in our bodies, prayed twice a day, morning and evening, and got plenty of sunshine during the day, we could survive.
"They didn't lie to us about that, at least."
That was... reasonable enough.
Ed felt he was still too normal. He had yet to properly understand just how insane this world was.
In the face of death, any difficulty could be overcome. Even if the price was a slow death, many people would accept it. Although he personally felt this was somewhat cruel, for these villagers, it might be exactly what they wanted.
But then again, if the Tree Worship Church treated the villagers so well, why had they captured the original owner of his body to experiment on him?
That felt a little unfair.
Ed sank into thought. The old man had inadvertently conveyed a great deal of information. For instance, the Tree Worship Church had been spreading its faith here for at least twenty years, and everyone here had a tree growing on their body, with only the location differing.
He thought back to how this topic had first come up and looked at the old man, who was preparing to lie on his stomach to sleep.
"Then what did you mean about using 'tree seeds'?"
The old man pointed to the little tree on his back. A few things resembling miniature fruits or seeds hung from the tips of some branches.
Just as he was about to explain further, a sudden clatter of hooves came from somewhere in the distance outside, accompanied by distinctly clear sounds of metal striking metal.
The old man, who had been about to explain, froze at first. Then his tone grew somewhat heavy.
"The Tree Worship Church's tax collector is here. Young man, quick, help me pick three seeds off my back. Choose the plumper ones."
As he spoke, he lay face down on the bed, facing the boards, his hands gripping the filthy bed legs as though awaiting the pain to come.
Ed had a guess, but did not ask.
He followed the old man's advice and carefully searched among the branches on his back for plump seeds.
Every time he removed a seed, the old man's body jerked violently.
And where each seed had been picked, red liquid faintly seeped from the break in the branch.