“So, what do you do in a pioneering village?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean your work. You must be farming from spring to autumn, but what are your plans for winter? D you knit sandals or something?”
My image of pioneering villages was that in the dark of winter, we would knit sandals around the fireplace. But none of them showed any signs of doing that yesterday and noon had already passed today, yet all they had done since morning was magic practice.
“We don’t do anything.”
“Eh?”
Aria’s answer came as a shock to me.
“We don’t do anything in winter. Village maintenance at most, I guess. If we don’t do that, the village will be swallowed by the Demon Forest and monsters will flood in.”
“Eh? Is that fine? What about your food stores?”
“A pioneering village near the Demon Forest has ten times a normal harvest, you know? The autumn harvest is enough to secure enough food for winter. We’re fine even if we add 4-5 people more.”
“Whoa.”
It seems that pioneering villages are quite profitable.
No wonder yesterday’s meal was so huge.
There were many kinds of preserved foods, probably because you couldn’t get to town easily, but it was all delicious since it was cooked well.
More importantly, they have days where they could do nothing at all. What is this heaven?
“The only thing we do during winters is defeat the monsters that come for reconnaissance about once a week, and cut down trees if they start growing in the field. Then once snow starts falling, the number of approaching monsters will fall and we’ll really have nothing left to do.”
“…..”
It’s a heavenly workplace where you only have to work once a week.
Why was I fighting monsters that appeared randomly, everyday for the last 5 years?
“…I wonder if I should live here.”
“! Do it! That’s good!!”
“…Well aren’t you hyped about that.”
Aria clings with all her power to the words I let slip.
That reminds me, she didn’t try to kick me out even when I shaved the Demon Forest.
“…That reminds me, I hadn’t told you about it yet.”
Aria then explains the situation of this village to me.
***
“I don’t know what to say to that.”
“It can’t be helped. This seems to happen more often than we might think.”
The current situation in this village was pretty bad.
More than anything, the fact that this isn’t limited to just this village is pretty worrying.
“Even if it’s you alone, we might manage to do something about it.”
“I’m not from this country though, is that fine?”
“It’s fine. If you’re here during tax collection, they’ll have no way of knowing which country you’re from.”
There’s no such thing as a family register in this country.
Though that’s not just limited to this country, but to this world.
In fact, the level of civilization in this world is medieval or even earlier.
The aristocrats are spending their time in comfort, using the magic tools from the ancient magician civilization mined from ruins, so the civilization level may be on a standstill.
Magic other than combat, also seems to be largely obsolete.
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In other words, if the magic tools suddenly disappear, the quality of life may drop all at once, but is that fine?
I can only see decline waiting for this civilization…
Though by that time, they might have already deciphered the books from the ancient magician civilization and made them their own.
I wonder how many of those books still remain though.
Well, leaving aside the future, other than deciding whether I want to live here or not, I have absolutely no problems.
“It’s a boat I’ve already boarded. I’ll stay till you get more manpower.”
“Really? Thank you!!”
As she says so, she goes to Reno and her friends.
Oi oi, I didn’t say I’ll stay here forever.
Upon hearing that, Reno and Sui run towards me.
“Lain nii-chan! I heard you’ll stay here forever!!”
“Lain, stay stay, teach me.”
They look up at me with glittering eyes.
Aria and the other two were giving me satisfied looks.
Do you intend to make this an established fact?
If I don’t like it, I’ll leave you know?
“…I’ll be in your care.”
I couldn’t win against the kids.
Wait, weren’t we only 3 years apart from each other?
I show a bitter smile, while patting the two on their heads.
Though I didn’t have any bad intentions.
***
The depths of the forest.
Several greywolves were desperately running away from ‘something’.
“GAAAAAA”
As one turns around, it sees ‘something’ right behind them, chasing them.
If it were bipedal, they could have easily shaken it off, but this ‘something’ was on 4 legs and had been chasing them for hours.
But they couldn’t stop their legs.
Since it had a similar shape, one of their friends had approached ‘something’ and was brutally devoured by it.
If it caught up, they would surely meet the same fate.
Looking back again, it had gotten even closer.
In its desperation, the wolf keeps running. Running. Running.
It couldn’t see the figure of its friends who were supposed to be running alongside it.
As it begins to feel a warm wind behind it, the greywolf’s consciousness gets trapped in darkness for eternity.