Shantania/Supports/ArgurRuby

In the center of the circled wagons, Argur takes his seat on a half-log, facing away from the campfire, all the better to see the hefty volume in front of him. As he becomes absorbed in his reading, Ruby approaches, being sure not to stand in a blind spot. Even when sitting, Argur towers over her, so this is not difficult.

"What's that you're reading?" she asks, as she grabs a seat next to the behemoth bookworm.

"The Courtesanal War. It is a war chronicle set some hundred years in the past of the Gozen Shogunate."

"Courtesanal? What, like...it involves prostitutes, or something?"

"I thought it strange as well, myself, but it seems that the professional companions of Gozen did stage a rebellion across the Shogunate, many years ago." Argur inserts a large leaf into the book and closes it. "It stemmed from the Shogunate's unusual economy. A Gozenjin does not pay for services with coins or gems, but wooden tokens intended for various specific things. Companions and concubines were paid for their services in special tokens called Mekake Kanka, specifically intended for 'high services.'"

"High services, like sex and child-bearing?" Ruby, ever looking to broaden her knowledge of the world around her, is positively riveted.

"In so many words, yes. Courtesans would be paid entirely in Mekake, meaning they could not spend their earnings for food or the basics of living. Since they could do nothing about it otherwise, they staged an uprising. First, on their home city, and later, across the entire Shogunate."

"I'm gonna have to get back to you and see how that ends, sometime." She stretches her legs out in front of her. "I'm really surprised a big, huge dude like you is so interested in reading. I guess it takes all kinds."

"Believe me, yours is the calmest reaction I've seen."

"Yeah, really. Jesus, it's like nobody around here knows how to read."

"...They don't."

"I mean, would it kill them to--wait, you're serious?"

"Outside of the very rich. Books and tomes are a luxury that a common man cannot afford."

"How do *you* afford it? How'd you learn to read?"

"My father taught me at a young age." He sighs deeply. "Technically, I cannot afford to own these books. In my...less wise days, I made it a habit of raiding caravans like this one. Not for coin or creed, but for knowledge."

"Because books really are that expensive?"

"Many are kept in royal libraries, far out of the reach of the common man. I'd wager few are ever opened."

"...You know, I guess you're right. Huh." Ruby stands up. "I might have to ask you to let me borrow a few of those volumes of yours, though. I feel like I haven't read a good book since I got here."

"Perhaps I ought to recommend some to you, Madame Knight."

"Madame--uh, okay, whatever." She shrugs and marches off, feeling it better to accept the unwanted title than to debate with a well-spoken giant.