As I waited at the entrance of the village council’s chambers, I was starting to feel a bit anxious. After mom had shown the newly built adult sized wheelbarrow to Nana, she was also overjoyed to see that we had made a practical invention that could help the village. She then instructed us to showcase the wheelbarrow at the village council meeting next month and today was finally that day.

At first, I wanted to be the one to make the presentation seeing that I am the inventor but eventually reality poured cold water on me as I realised that no one would take me seriously since I was a 6-year-old. Sure, they will watch the presentation but not for the wheelbarrow. Instead, their attention would be focused on me as a 6-year-old presenting at the village council and I didn't want that.

So instead, we had decided that mom would be the one to make the presentation instead. However, I decided to make this my first foray into getting rich, by the end of this I am going to be swimming in piles of salt. Well, that phrase doesn’t fit as much as it does with gold. Anyway, I talked mom into it and even coached her on how to give an attractive presentation

*Flashback*

“Mom, we could use this chance to become rich!”

“Rich? How?”

“Well, when you present the wheelbarrow to the village council make a request that since we are the inventors of the wheelbarrow, we want 1 fist sized salt stone for every wheelbarrow sold, or a boulder size salt stack to be able to sell as they desire.”

“You think the council and the craftsmen will agree?”

“I think they will.”

“U-um, I also think they will.”

Cylix interjected and we were a bit surprised since he didn't participate in these kinds of conversations much and so we turned around to see him so that he could tell us his understanding.

“U-Uh, While I have worked at the blacksmith shop for a small amount of time, I know that if there was a new product to sell, they would try to get that new product. Not to mention that our wheelbarrow has parts from all three craftsmen, the carpenters for the frame, the blacksmith for the nails and the mason for the wheel.”

“Well, if you guys are so confident, I will mention it to the council”

*Flashback end*

Eventually, we were led into the council hall, and as I looked around me, I couldn’t help but be a bit underwhelmed. As one of the few structures that originated immediately after the apocalypse, I thought I could see some of the architecture and culture of the past. But this building was very utilitarian.

It was essentially an indoor amphitheatre as there were rows of stands in a circular manner around the flat centre stage on which there was a desk weirdly reminiscent of a judge's desk. I didn’t have time to peruse more as my mom moved to sit me and Cylix in one of the stands.

It was the lowest stand as after my mom sat us down, she started to walk towards the centre. The hall was already full by the time we entered and as I noticed now, most of the people's eyes were on my mom and they were murmuring to each other probably discussing what a healer like my mom has to show.

Bang, Bang, Bang!

“The village council will take a session, please maintain decorum during the entire session.”

Nana said with a stern expression after she banged the gavel on her desk. Within moments, the entire hall went silent.

“Well, the first order of business is that Healer Caera here has an invention to showcase to the village.”

Mom moved into the centre with the wheelbarrow.

“Greetings fellow villagers and council members. I am Caera, one of the 14 healers in our village and the youngest one to get the healer title in this generation. You may also recognise me from the previous council meetings.”

Huh, I didn’t know that she was a council member. Honestly with the amount of time she stays outside of the house doing her healer duties, I don’t even know what other positions she is in. Though I don’t think she is in too many positions as she probably doesn’t have enough time. To think that this village of more than 400 people only has 14 healers, wild!

“Today I am presenting here one invention that my sons made together. However, please judge the invention based on its use and not the age of its creators. Several of you may have already heard of the two six-year-old kids that have already reached reserve hunter level, those two kids are my sons Cylix and Cyclos.”

She said as she pointed at us with an obvious look of pride on her face and subsequently the focus of most of the chamber turned towards us as if they were watching an alien beast that came into the village.

“While I would love to talk a few hours about my sons, we are not here today for that. So, without further ado, let me present you with the wheelbarrow. Your first question would be about what this weird misshapen device is? It isn’t large enough to be a cart and it is weird with only one wheel instead of two. But these features are exactly what make the wheelbarrow special.

Ever had to carry loads of items a short enough distance that you didn’t need a cart? Well, this is the tool for you. To give you an example, let me show you using an example my son showed me. If you are like me, you get the firewood for your house in two methods. Either you get the logs from the market and cut them yourself, or you get them pre-cut directly from the market.

In both cases, it is a hassle to carry the logs multiple times to and fro from the market. Here the wheelbarrow fills in the transportation gap. First, you simply fill the wheelbarrow to the brim.”

On her cue, a few of the helpers we arranged came and filled up the wheelbarrow within a minute. While they were filling it up Mom continued so that the council members won't lose their focus.

“Now before I showcase it, do you think I as a woman could carry this pile around the room struggling and without using reinforcement?”

With her question, people started murmuring and sounds of No came from the stands.

“Well, I would like to request the council members that can sense mana, please verify that I am not using any reinforcement.”

A few council members stood up and confirmed that mom wasn’t using any reinforcement and volunteered to monitor her throughout the process.

“Thank you, council members, for your help. Now please see how easy transporting this firewood is with the help of the wheelbarrow.”

Mum said as she lifted the wheelbarrow and proceeded to circle around the centre so that all that all the council members could see. As she passed by us, she threw a wink and walked away, eventually stopping where she started.

“As you can see it is simple to use and even some of our perceptive craftsmen council members would have noticed the ease of turning this wheelbarrow has, this is due to the single wheel. This wheelbarrow can be used almost everywhere within our village. The farmer can move his grain, the craftsmen can move their ores and wood, the hunters can move their prey and many others. Now I will accept any of your questions.”

The hall devolved into cacophony as sounds of disbelief, wonder and amazement were heard. It took Nana re-establishing peace to make the people reduce their voices and they immediately started murmuring with each other, but nobody asked any questions as it was simple to see how the wheelbarrow could be used. After giving the council a few minutes to ask questions and with none, mom moved on to the most difficult part of this presentation.

“Well, seeing that as no one is asking the questions, I would like to make my request regarding the wheelbarrow.

Seeing as a lot of thought has gone into the making of this wheelbarrow, I am requesting financial recompense for sharing the designs of the wheelbarrow. We would either want a first small stone of salt tax for each wheelbarrow made, or a one-time payment of two wheelbarrows worth of salt to own the sole rights of making wheelbarrows.”

There will always be someone that wants to profit for free and as I had expected, immediately a man stood up and started shouting

“This is preposterous! To think you would try to profit from the village instead of helping it! Anyone should be able to make wheelbarrows!”

Immediately people started murmuring discussing what the guy had said. I looked over to mom and saw that she had a small frown on her face. I was about to stand up and try and help her when she said

“You mean to say that if a family member of yours invents something great, that too would be spread to the other villagers for free and please don’t say that isn’t possible. Do you think that your family members aren’t smarter than my six-year-old son?”

Mom was a genius to pull that move, by mentioning my age, she gave him hope that he too could create something like this if he tried and thus made him reassess the possible losses. The man immediately realised how badly his decision would cost him so he immediately sat down without further comment, the surrounding council members too realised that man was just being greedy and wanted to profit without paying us and started to look at him with a bit of disgust. But obviously, the man was shameless and didn’t let the council member's gaze disturb him.

“Please raise your hand if you agree with Caera’s request”

More than 70% of the hall raised their hands in acceptance.

“The majority accepts, and the request is granted”

Now that the request was granted another person stood up to ask a question

“If two or more people want to buy the right one, who would you sell it to?”

“How many people are interested in buying the exclusive right?”

Immediately, a bunch of hands rose up in the air, and after I counted them, a total of 7 people wanted to buy the rights. Now, mom looked distressed by the situation and unlike last time however she didn’t seem to have an idea on how to go about this so I got down from my seat and decided to go and give her some of my wisdom

“Hey brother, I have an idea on how to solve this problem so I am going over to mom. Meanwhile, you stay here”

Cylix nodded to show that he understood, but I could see the worry in his eyes for mom. I tapped him on the shoulders to reassure him and walked onto the stage, immediately the hall started whispering and pointing toward me. They were obviously talking about me, but as I am an adult in a child’s body, I knew how to just tune them out.

I walked up to mom and signalled to her to lend her ear. She crouched to my level and I whispered into her ear.

“Mom, we can arrange an auction!”

“Auction? What’s that?”

Oh, right I forgot we live in a village and our village doesn’t have enough rich people and cultural artefacts to organise an auction.

“An auction is when people start bidding a price for the item and the highest bidder wins” and then I proceed to explain some of the ideas she could use now.

Immediately her eyes lit up as she heard my plan, she nodded and proceeded to announce the new rules.

“Since all of you want the rights, we will hold an auction to determine who gets the rights. Everyone can bid and the person with the highest bid wins. However, before you bid, we must make sure you are capable of paying the bid or else the bid will be invalid.”

A person from the potential bidders stood up clearly wanting to ask a question

“Everybody knows that nobody owns that much wealth in the village, certainly not us craftsmen, then how will we pay?”

“We can set up a payment plan and you can pay it off in batches. Though I have to warn you, I will take 5% interest on the loan.”

Woah, it seems at least the knowledge of loans has survived, and now that I think about it, medicine in any era was expensive so maybe the poor patient's mom treats, just go on a payment plan. Anyway, the man was satisfied with the answer as he sat down.

Luckily every person seemed to get the answers they wanted because no further questions were asked before or during the auction. Finally, the auction ended at 2 and ½ wheelbarrows.

For the first time in both lives, I was Richy rich.