Translated by Cadmar-kun
1/3 chapters
Chapter 207 - The Festival of Paramea
"Hey, are you sure I can eat as much of this stuff as I want?"
"Yeah, you can eat as much as you want during the festival."
"Yay, yay!"
Such a scene is seen in a plaza inside Paramea.
In the middle of the plaza, a huge campfire made of wood was lit and burning.
Nearby, musical instruments that seem to have been handed down from generation to generation in this area were being played, and many people were dancing to the music.
The people playing the instruments were from a village near the water fortress.
It was the music that I thought was absolutely necessary for the festival to be held.
Everywhere in the world, including in my previous life, there is a certain type of music that is cultural.
However, it differs from region to region.
Even if it was in the territory of Gana, which was closer to Paramea than Barca, the music played here seemed to be a little different.
In a world with poor means of transportation, society is small, closed, and complete within itself. People think of it more like their world than their society.
Those who step into the "world" and vandalize it are seen as enemies to the small society.
If someone were to play music from another region at a festival to console the residents of this region, the residents would feel as if their land had been ransacked, their lives had been taken, and their culture had been denied.
This is why we adopted the music of this area, to show that we are not the enemy, but that we want to blend in with them.
At the same time, we decided to give them an immediate benefit at the festival.
That is, we prepared the food and made it all-you-can-eat.
This is especially effective for children.
No matter where you go, there are always hungry children.
And for those children, the person who feeds them is not an enemy, but a friend.
No matter what their parents or the adults around them say, that advice is no match for the magical powers of food.
That's why I decided to transport a large amount of food and serve it at the festival in order to grab the children's hearts by going through their stomachs.
"Uh ....you ......."
"Father ....... You're really dead, aren't you?"
But some of the children were sobbing even amid the joyful sounds of the others.
They placed flowers on a stone monument that stood just a few feet away from the campfire and wept as they kneeled on the ground in front of it.
The monument was created by me using magic.
I used magic to create a huge [Hardened] brick stone that looked like marble and made it into a stone monument.
The names of those who had died in Paramea were inscribed on the monument.
I had been ashore after the fall of Paramea and the waters had gone down again, so I checked the remaining documents.
The first place I went was the church.
The church kept a list of the names of the people who lived there.
I had memorized the list in my brain using [Memory Preservation].
Only those who were known to be survivors were excluded from the list, and the others' names were engraved on the stone monument.
By the way, luckily the priest in charge of this church was not in Paramea when it was flooded.
It was lucky for the priest, but it was also lucky for me.
And so, people are shedding tears when they find the names of their family members, relatives, and acquaintances on the stone monument I have created.
It's good to fill your stomach with food, but crying is also important.
But it is all going as planned.
You are reading story I Was Reincarnated as a Poor Farmer in a Different World, so I Decided to Make Bricks to Build a Castle at novel35.com
Crying from the bottom of your heart will release much of the pains it is feeling.
I continued to hold such a festival for several days.
The reason why I did so much was that I wanted many people to participate.
And on the last day, we had an event where I made things using spells and the people let them float on the water of the lake.
My creation was a bottled ship.
It was a glass bottle with a model of a ship inside.
The glass bottle ships were made with magic, lit up using Life Magic [Lighting], and floated on the lake by the residents.
We had made quite a few of them, and it was quite fantastic to see them all bobbing in the lake at night.
In this way, the festival of Paramaea was held without any problems.
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"Hmm, so there aren't that many slimes in the lower reaches of Paramea, are there?"
"Yes, that's right, Barca-sama. There are a number of reservoirs in the Arbalest Territory, but there aren't that many slimes. And you can usually catch fish in the rivers safely."
"I wonder if the fish can be sold? I'd like to be able to eat them in Barca if we can harvest them consistently."
"Yes, but it's not that delicious. In the Arbalest Territory, they make dried fish to preserve them, so we cannot sell a lot of them to people."
"I don't mind. It's not only that I want to eat fish, but I also want to have an economic connection with Paramea. In Barca, which is practically surrounded by the forest, fish is quite valuable. Even if it's not that good, there will be people who want to buy them."
"I understand. I really think it would be helpful if we could sell our goods."
"Okay, that's settled. Thank you. So, is there anything else on your mind?"
"Well, I don't mean to be rude, but can I ask you something? Actually, there is a dangerous part of the river that passes by our village. I've been asking you, knight-sama, if you could work on it for a while now, but you haven't been able to make it happen. You know....."
"Ah, river construction. I understand. I'll send some Barcan soldiers. They will do a preliminary inspection first."
"Yes, sir. Thank you very much."
"Oh, then..."
There was another reason for keeping the festival going for a few days: to talk with the powers that be in this area.
The people in power here are basically the chiefs of the surrounding villages and towns.
As leaders, they are responsible for organizing the villages and paying taxes to their lords.
And even if the control is transferred from the Arbalest family to the Fontana family, it is basically the same.
The reason is that it is quicker to say to the person who is originally in charge of the village, "From now on, you must pay taxes to us," than to replace the chief of each village one by one.
We talked with the village chiefs and decided how to develop the surrounding land.
Especially where there is a river, there is a certain amount of flooding due to heavy rains.
The most common issue was the maintenance of such rivers.
We also discussed with Gana the selection of people to live on the land that we had cleared and improved with the village chiefs.
It was probably a good thing that we had redeveloped the fields around Lake Paramea first.
At first, the village chiefs seemed to have a somewhat rebellious side to Gana, but when they were shown the possibility of getting new and improved fields, some of them began to change their opinions.
I also induced them to make some profit for us as well.
We've done this far, but the land around here will become the territory of Gana's family.
There won't be many benefits left for me.
So I made a deal for Barca to find out what could only be obtained in this area and to give us priorities when selling or sending them to others.
Although there is a river in my territory, it does not produce a large amount of fish.
If we can get a stable supply of fish from this area, it's good.
In this way, we succeeded in laying the groundwork for Fontana's rule to be accepted by the residents of Paramea, albeit only politically.
CadmarLegend Now, I don't know if I translated the location right... Just a heads up. It was a bit confusing. I dunno if the festival is being held within a rebuilt Water Fortress Paramea, or author-sama is deciding on calling the lands around Lake Paramea (not the water fortress) as Paramea from now on.