Paper Folding

Maika’s Perspective

The spring breeze cooled down my hot body. I had just snatched victory from Glen. He had challenged me to a duel to celebrate our graduation from the military academy. In the past two years, our swords had crossed countless times. Because of that, I noticed that Glen looked more motivated and serious than usual when challenging me. And I had a vague idea of why that was. Now that our duel had finished, it was time for my suspicions to be confirmed.

“My plan was to tell you after I won, but...” After wiping the dirt and sweat off himself with a towel, Glen went down to his knees. “Maika, I have something to tell you.”

“Yes, Glen.” I straightened my posture and fixed my bangs to look more ladylike while listening to the words of the boy kneeling in front of me.

“I have liked you ever since I first saw you. I admire your smile, which is as beautiful as a flower, as well as your swordsmanship, which is as swift as the wind. So, would you please go out with me?”

Gosh... That makes me blush.

I felt nervous having someone like Glen confess his feelings to me so directly, even though I was pretty used to receiving love confessions. Back in the village, as well as here at the academy, some boys had told me things like, “Please become my wife” or “I love you.” I’m serious. I’m quite popular, you know? I hope you realize that too, Ash.

Ahem... Anyways. Nonetheless, most of these confessions were made half-jokingly—they didn’t really mind if they got rejected. And needless to mention, my feelings weren’t so cheap that they would’ve been affected by such offhand confessions. Practically no one had the determination to muster up all their courage and confess while putting their feelings on the line as Glen had done just now. That was why I also needed to be serious.

“I cannot reciprocate your feelings.” I wasn’t going to talk in a roundabout way. I wasn’t going to apologize out of consideration either. I was just as serious as he was. I rejected his confession in the shortest and fastest way possible. “My heart belongs to someone else. Someone who was there before you, and someone more captivating than you. That’s why I cannot give it to you.”

Surely, Glen knew who I was talking about. And without a doubt, he must have also anticipated my answer. Still, he had decided to confess to me. He was shaking when he had told me about his long-held feelings. He must have been scared, knowing that he was going to get turned down. Glen must have been anticipating the pain of having his heart shattered to pieces. Imagining myself someday confessing my feelings to the person I liked, it wasn’t difficult to sympathize with him. Just thinking about it felt as if my chest were being crushed.

The boy who hadn’t given in to his fears concealed his pain with a smile. “I see. Thanks, Maika. What shall I say? It’s a huge weight off my shoulders.”

Seeing how he reacted in this situation, my honest opinion slipped out. “You’re really strong, Glen.”

He was the complete opposite of me.

I also mustered up all my courage and confessed my thoughts, which I usually did my best to hide. “You know, I’m actually quite weak,” I said.

By the look of things, Glen didn’t really believe me. Admittedly, it must have sounded a bit strange. After all, I had just beaten him in a sword fight.

“Really. Whenever I’m sad or I’m having a rough time, my chest tightens. It’s very painful and distressing. I hate the feeling.”

As a child, I disliked the dark and studying. Even now, I still hated seeing the faces of people who restrained themselves or had given up. I didn’t want to see them. I wanted to do something about them. And if I couldn’t do anything, I wanted someone else to act.

“I’m so weak and cowardly that I can’t even put up with such trivial things.”

I had become strong enough to beat the strongest boy in our entire year, but when it came down to my feelings, I was still the same as always. I knew better than anyone how weak my mind still was.

“That’s why I admire anyone strong enough to never make me feel that way.”

Someone who, as a child, took my hand when I was frightened of the creeping darkness on my way home in the evening. Someone who erased everything that I hated and made me scared. The weak side of me wanted to always stay warm and in a bright mood right beside that person.

“You see, I’m a pretty spoiled girl.”

In all honesty, I expected anyone who knew this to loathe me. It was quite depressing, after all. I was like a selfish princess who wanted to have all the bad things dealt with, even though she herself was a coward afraid of the dark. I was sure that, under normal circumstances, I would’ve never ever fallen in love. I would have found a fault in every boy that came along. No matter how wonderful, he wouldn’t have lived up to my ideals.

I wanted someone who kept me warm on a cold night, like the flame of a fireplace. Someone who illuminated the way back to my safe home on a scary night, like a bright torch.

The dreaded night always came, and the light of the stars was too pale to illuminate the path I was bound to walk on. I was shrouded in darkness, paralyzed at my feet. My ideal man was someone capable of conquering the eternal night, for which no flame or light was bright enough. I only managed to fall in love because the person I liked wasn’t normal.

Recently, in the village where I was born, the number of residents kept increasing. All thanks to the decrease in deaths from hunger and illness. My mom was also as energetic as ever, taking command. Our friend, who had only shown a sad smile when we first met, had become more cheerful in front of our eyes as we spent time together. The boy, who had been on the brink of getting crushed by his own dreams, had managed to pursue those dreams and soar through the skies.

The person I liked transformed our reality with the brilliance of a warm light shining in a previously cold and dark world. And once you had known his warmth, you wanted to spend the rest of your life under his light only.

“There is nothing wrong with you at all, Glen. Thank you for liking me,” I said to the person who had confessed to me. “But there’s only ever been—and there can only ever be—one person who my weak self can come to like.”

I was only able to live beside that sunlike, red-haired boy. Like a flower that only blossomed under the sun.

●　●　●

“Dear Ash,

“The wind blowing over the capital has become lukewarm, signaling the transition from spring to summer. I imagine spring must have already come to Sacula too. Remembering Sacula’s spring as I write this letter, I feel like it was more vibrant than those in the capital. Everything ranging from the colors, to the smells, to the sounds.

“I want to go back to Sacula. You might say, ‘Already?’ but here in the capital... Well, there’s no point going into further details. Don’t worry, I’m also having fun. His Excellency the Count of Sacula is very friendly, and I get along quite well with the maids and servants surrounding me too. Oh, yeah, I also talked with Father Folke. We were on the same wavelength, just as expected from someone who taught you and Maika. So yeah, there are fun things over here as well. But of course, it can’t compare to the time I spent with you in Sacula...

“His Excellency told me a bit about the situation in Sacula. He said that there will be a new department headed by you and Maika. I should probably be saying, ‘Well done,’ but for some reason, I also feel proud myself. After all, the department was put in place to press forward with both the agricultural development plan and the industrial development plan, right? As someone who helped come up with these plans, I feel like it isn’t too strange for me to think of the new department as my achievement too.

“It makes me incredibly happy to see how our joint efforts are coming to fruition. My heart is pounding, and I feel energized. Thank you for spending that time with me. And thank you for carrying on our work. I’ll also make sure to carry on with it here in the capital. Hopefully you’ll be pleased too.

“Now, going straight to the point, I’ve sent you some books that I found at the royal city temple. Since I started by looking at agriculture-related books, there are hardly any manufacturing-related ones. I can already imagine Hermes sulking and pouting. Please reassure him—he can expect more from me together with the next letter! Ah, maybe it’s better if we leave that task to Reina? Let her know I said hi.

“Anyway, this is about it for the first letter. I’ll try to send the next one as soon as possible. That way I can expect you to reply right away! Sorry, I was just joking—don’t push yourself if you’re busy. You always pretend to be fine, but most of what you do—or rather, everything you do—is reckless. I’ll also write Maika to tell her to keep you in check.

“Promise me you definitely won’t do anything unreasonable or reckless!

“Sincerely,

“Your roommate.”

After I had finished reading the letter from my faraway friend, I put it away in the drawer of my desk. If I had opened the window, I would have been greeted by a spring breeze. This was the third spring that I was spending at the dormitory, but this year I did not have a roommate.

“Morning, Ash!”

Lady Maika suddenly appeared as if to drive away my melancholy. Since we were childhood friends, she felt comfortable entering my room without knocking. Of course, I always knocked before entering hers. Unless you found yourself inside a romantic comedy, opening a girl’s room door without knocking equaled closing the door of your life.

“Breakfast is ready! I’ve come to pick you up!”

“Thank you. I did not realize it was already this late.”

“Yep. I’m hungry, so let’s not lose any time! Now that you mention it, it’s unusual for you to be late in the morning. Did you oversleep?”

“No, there was a letter from Arthur mixed in with the early morning delivery.”

“O-Oh, I got one too. I’m glad he’s doing fine.”

“Yes, indeed.”

Side-by-side we walked through the corridor of the dormitory. Even after turning thirteen and completing the military academy, I was still living on the ground floor of the dormitory. And no, I didn’t fail to graduate. Since there were not many new students, I was just helping out to effectively use an available room. In exchange for me agreeing to be an assistant to the dormitory supervisor, they covered rent and food expenses for me.

From what I had gathered from Lord Itsuki and Lady Maika, who seemed to be pulling the strings, the former had been willing to fully pay for my expenses during my stay here, but I had respectfully declined. There was a saying, “The freeloader only shyly asks for the third bowl of rice.” One should not take too much advantage of excessive kindness. What might look like a bottomless fountain could still dry up if you drew too much water. Therefore, I had told him, “If you have money to spare, please increase the funding of our projects instead.” And when I checked the budget documents later, the funding had indeed increased. This went to show that, sometimes, all you had to do was ask. Either way, it appeared that there was still plenty of water left in that fountain.

“But are you sure that you do not want to live at the mansion?” I asked Lady Maika.

Lord Itsuki had shed bitter tears at having the opportunity to live under the same roof as his beloved niece snatched away right in front of his eyes. The pretext had been to provide her education as a prospective successor of the count.

“Yeah, don’t worry! You see... Um... The dorm’s supervisor also needs an assistant for the girls! As a boy, you can’t really get involved in those issues!”

“Well, you are right about that.”

While we were only in our early teens, it was still appropriate to be cautious when dealing with girls at this age, since it could lead to various sensitive issues.

“So just leave that to me! I’ll somehow deal with my uncle and make sure to stay on his good side!”

“I see you have everything under control. I am counting on you.”

When it came to Lady Maika, Lord Itsuki was as moldable as fluff. I was glad to have her on my side.

As I showed my appreciation for Lady Maika’s capabilities, she looked up at me with a smile on her face.

“Is something wrong?” I asked.

“Nothing, I was just thinking how tall you’ve become.”

“Oh, yes. I have grown a bit.”

Maybe it was due to the fact that I had been eating more meat since coming to the city, but I had grown so much that even I was aware of it myself. Especially since my line of sight had become higher than Lady Maika’s, who was always next to me.

“You’ve finally overtaken me. How does that feel?”

“Hmm.”

A lot of things had become more convenient. With a stronger and taller body, it was easier to carry heavy objects. And also, how should I put it... I was happy to look more like a proper young man, and maybe even felt a little sense of superiority.

“It comes with the bonus of looking at your cute face with your upturned eyes.”

Boys were simple creatures in the end. I thought so while being one myself.

“I-I see. I-I also like looking up at you. You look even more caring.”

“I am glad to hear that.”

Some people may have been slightly pissed if their childhood friend overtook them in height, but luckily, Lady Maika was a kind childhood friend. By the way, your face is bright red.

“W-We’ve arrived at the cafeteria. It’s time for our job as assistants! Everyone, are you ready to eat?”

There were three types of replies coming from this year’s students, who were all waiting at the cafeteria. The extroverted students gave an energetic response. The serious ones answered in a moderate tone. And those who did not know how to respond either stayed silent or replied late.

“Anyone have any problems? Like not having any appetite or feeling ill? If you do, please report it to me or Ash, or the dormitory supervisor, Lady Kei. You can tell us later too.” Lady Maika switched to work mode and asked those questions.

Several students looked this way. Since none of them raised their voices, she announced the start of the meal. “Let us thank the chef and everyone who was in charge of helping him today before eating breakfast.” After saying their thanks, everyone started eating.

As Lady Kei’s assistants, we sat down at the same table as the dormitory supervisor. While Mrs. Rihn had been the supervisor during our time at the academy, she was no longer in charge this year. Kei was the name of the new supervisor.

“Good morning, Kei.”

“Good morning, Ash. Maika, thank you for the morning address.”

“It’s part of my job as an assistant. Leave it to me, Ms. Supervisor!”

“Ha ha ha, if it weren’t for you two, I definitely wouldn’t be able to do this job.”

Lady Kei looked truly innocent in her brand-new maid outfit. No wonder, considering that she was a fresh recruit who had just graduated from the academy. Or in other words, she was a former classmate. Usually, the job of dormitory supervisor was left to a more veteran maid with experience and skill, but given certain circumstances, Lady Kei had been selected.

Those circumstances included, for instance, the fact that there were fewer students compared to the previous year, where a big-name student had drawn a lot of attention, or the fact that veteran maids like Mrs. Rihn had to deal with the sudden increase in new technology over the past two years. Moreover, students from our year were so highly trusted that they were referred to as “the best in the history of the academy.” And I had heard people say that, “With such capable assistants, there should not be any problems.”

“It does seem difficult to suddenly become a dormitory supervisor, but I think you are the right person for the job.”

“You think so? Every day’s a mess, though...”

“Well, your work is appreciated. You know which students to talk to afterwards, right?”

“Ah, yeah. There were three students who looked troubled when Maika asked those questions earlier. If they’re just not feeling well, I can deal with that. But if they want any advice from me, I’m not sure I can help them. It appears that there’s already some love in the air...”

As I looked at Lady Maika, she signaled her approval with an okay sign. Lady Kei had an extremely keen eye for those kinds of things. No wonder Lady Maika gave her approval and Mrs. Rihn had recommended her for the position. But everyone’s so young! And talking about love interests already!

Lady Maika had a similar reaction, saying, “Already? They’re starting early.”

“Are you in a position to say that, Maika?”

As Lady Kei grinned at her, Lady Maika hastily added to her previous remarks, “B-But I guess it’s not too strange. Especially considering that some of them must have known each other before coming here.”

“That’s right. A lot of students have been encouraged by their parents to bring back a partner, so maybe they have their eyes set on someone they’ve already known since childhood,” Lady Kei said.

“Y-Yeah. That stuff also happened in our class, right?”

“There were some sinful people, weren’t there?” Lady Kei had a big grin on her face.

Apparently, she still loved this kind of talk. According to the boys from our class, she had always been at the center of every talk regarding love interests during our time at the academy too.

Since it was not really my place to join their conversation, I focused on my meal until one of the students came to talk to me. “Um, Ash?”

“Yes? Good morning, Luka.”

Hearing my formal reply, Lady Luka slightly panicked. “I-I’m sorry, Mr. Ash.”

Very well done.

I was not here in my private time, after all. Currently, I was here as the dormitory’s assistant supervisor, rather than as a fellow villager. Yes, Lady Luka was indeed an exchange student from Noscula village. She was the third exchange student to come here after the study group meetings had started at that battered church. By the way, there was a fourth one among this year’s class as well. Both of their expenses were covered by the village’s funds and a contribution from Mr. Quid.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Um... I was in charge of today’s breakfast, so... How was it?”

“It was very delicious. You get a gold star.”

As I praised her while patting her head like I used to do at the village, Lady Luka’s face lit up. Back then, she had always come to me to report anything. Before I knew it, she had grown attached to me.

At the same time that Lady Luka showed her smile, Lady Maika’s disappeared. “Ash, do you want to eat dinner at the mansion tonight? For some reason, I really feel like cooking.”

“Today? I do not mind, but we need to check with the mansion and our schedule first... What do you say, Kei?”

Upon hearing my question, Lady Kei’s grinning intensified, and she gave us an okay sign with both her hands. “I’ll take care of things here, so enjoy yourselves, you sinners.”

What sin could someone as virtuous as me have possibly committed? Maybe the original sin, given my passionate love for the fruit of knowledge?

●　●　●

Renge’s Perspective

The knocking sound reverberated as if to express my own nervousness. I must have been imagining things. I had knocked on the door just as I had been taught during my maid training. What I heard must have been my own heartbeat.

“Come in,” Ms. Ran’s voice echoed from the inside.

I took another deep breath before opening the door to the count’s office. Inside, the acting count, Lord Itsuki, looked at me with a troubled face over some documents. Next to him, Ms. Ran, his personal maid, was sitting at a desk near the door.

“Over here. How can I help you?”

“Y-Yes. Sorry for intruding, Ms. Ran.” I walked towards her desk and presented a document. “This is a written report from the Territory Reform Promotion Office. It lists the areas that saw large fluctuations in their harvest yields and compares them to previous years.”

It was the latest version of the task that I had performed together with Ash and Lord Arthur last year. Originally, harvest yields had only ever been compared with the previous year when establishing the budget. However, since Ash and Lord Arthur had turned it into a bigger task by proposing to compare them with many previous years, it was relayed to the newly established Territory Reform Promotion Office. Given Lord Arthur’s departure to the royal capital, Ash and I were at the head of the office. It was my first and current job after the reshuffling of the personnel.

In addition to conducting follow-up observations of Adele, Ajole, Torade, and Sekuba—the four villages that had shown large fluctuations last year—we had also added three new villages to our report. All three had shown large fluctuations in harvest yields as well.

I patiently waited for Ms. Ran’s to speak while she quickly scanned through the report. Strangely enough, my nervousness from earlier was now slowly fading away. Until last year, I would have never anticipated that a newbie and underling like me was going to deliver documents directly to the acting count. My chest had hurt from nervousness, but remembering how laboriously Ash and I had put these documents together, I was able to calm down.

“You have shown a good attitude today,” Ms. Ran murmured with her eyes fixed on the documents in front of her. “When submitting the report, you didn’t stutter at all.”

“Wh-What? R-Really?”

“Now you did.”

Just when I thought I was going to receive some praise, I went and messed it up again. But I wondered if I really hadn’t stuttered earlier. I had always been poor at communicating, and at some point, stuttering had become a bad habit of mine. Moreover, even though I was aware of it myself, it had taken a turn for the worse in the past two years.

As I remembered why my stutter had worsened, Ms. Ran stood up and walked towards Lord Itsuki’s desk. “Lord Itsuki, this is the report from the Territory Reform Promotion Office. It is very well-written.”

“Hm. As expected, then.” Lord Itsuki grinned as he accepted the document. He was a very easygoing person, just like Ash had said. “Well done, Renge. It must be hard to keep up with Ash.”

“Y-Yes. But it’s very fulfilling work, so it’s fine. I think...”

“There is nothing more promising than hearing you say that after working with Ash. No wonder he values you so highly.”

“Th-Thank you.”

My cheeks flushed. To think that I of all people was in a leading position, and even a founder of a newly established office that the acting count himself had set his eyes on...

There were rumors flying around saying, “The Territory Reform Promotion Office is essentially just Ash’s baby,” but Ash himself had explicitly wanted me to be a part of it. I was happy when he had invited me, but I even became emotional when I heard that Ash had recommended me to Lord Itsuki too. I’m going to work even harder! I discreetly fired myself up by making a fist.

“Hm, I thought the same thing when I first saw the fluctuation, but it’s much easier to put it into perspective when reading it like this. Adele and Torade just happened to suffer from bad luck last year.”

“Yes, Adele was attacked by beasts and Torade suffered from water damage. In both cases, it was just a temporary misfortune,” I elaborated.

“Telling them to keep their spending in check would be a cruel joke. We collected more than enough taxes from them in previous years. As a statesman, I can’t put this in the same category as villages that continuously yield poor harvests.”

“Yes, it is no wonder that last year’s report was accompanied by a petition for tax reductions.”

“I remember some council members objecting, but I’m sure they will realize that last year’s tax reduction was a good investment when looking at this year’s improved numbers.”

Ms. Ran nodded along and confirmed the statements of Lord Itsuki, who pointed out the numbers in the report with a satisfied look on his face.

“This method is extremely useful. Maybe we should consider employing it in other fields too,” Ms. Ran proposed.

“Hm. It’s not that simple. This work requires a lot of effort and skill,” Lord Itsuki remarked.

“Yes, that is why we should adequately reward the Territory Reform Promotion Office, who volunteered that effort and skill this time.” Ms. Ran said while looking at me.

“Of course. Renge, I imagine it must have been a difficult task. It’s a new department, you have to work with Ash, the work covers a wide range of areas, there are a lot of new recruits, and above anything, you have to work with Ash. In addition, you don’t have any connections to other departments or outside entities, and not to forget that you have to work with Ash!”

Um, you mentioned working with Ash several times?

Nevertheless, Ms. Ran didn’t seem to find anything wrong with that—she just nodded along.

“However, as acting count, I very much value hard yet extremely promising work. I hope you will use this experience to grow even further.”

“I have to concur as one of your superiors, Renge. Active duty maids with experience as the founder of a new department are scarce. You will become an exceptionally reliable maid if you keep growing at this rate.”

I-I’m humbled, but that praise is wasted on someone like me. N-No, I mean, of course I’m doing my best, so I appreciate their words. And most of all, it’s a fulfilling job for me too, so I’m happy, but...

“Hm, just looking at her, she seems to be a reserved and timid person, but...” Lord Itsuki began.

“Renge is strong-willed. There is nothing to worry about,” Ms. Ran reassured him.

“I mean, she is able to keep up with Ash. Even I can’t make light of that fact.”

Wh-What? Ash truly is incredible, but it’s not like I’m keeping up with him. Rather, it’s him dragging me along. I haven’t really done much...

I was happy that Ms. Ran and Lord Itsuki were praising me, but it was all the result of Ash’s work, so I faltered and shrunk back.

“Isn’t it amazing that a young maid is able to handle Ash’s power and work with him?” Lord Itsuki asked.

“Yes, definitely. Just look at Mrs. Rihn. She is a veteran, and yet look how she handled it.”

“She snapped into two...”

“I did not think I would ever see the perfect superwoman Mrs. Rihn like that...”

“Let’s place our hopes in Renge.”

“I will help however I can.”

Both of them continued to take turns praising me until I left the room.

Feeling that my serious facial expression had started to crumble from all the praise, I rubbed both my cheeks. I’m happy! Really!

Lord Itsuki was going to become the next count, or in other words, he was the second most important person in all of Sacula. He was beloved among the maids and knights, and there seemed to be no worries regarding his future reign among the citizens.

As his personal maid, Ms. Ran was destined to be the next head of maids. She was skilled and appreciated enough to be entrusted with that position as soon as Lord Itsuki officially became count. There was no way I wouldn’t have been happy to receive praise from people like them. But they shouldn’t have been pampering me this much...

As my mind kept going in circles, I finally calmed down and regained my usual composure. I took another deep breath before knocking on the door of the Territory Reform Promotion Office. Inside, Ash was swiftly dealing with some documents, as usual.

It was gratifying to see him like that. I felt the need to immediately inform him that Lord Itsuki had praised the report to the skies. “Ash, I submitted the report to Lord Itsuki. He was very pleased with it. He said it was going to be useful as a reference going forward.”

“I am glad to hear that. We did not work for nothing.” Ash’s smile seemed even brighter than usual when he answered. It subconsciously made me smile too.

“Y-Yes!”

For some reason, I felt happier seeing Ash pleased and hearing him say that it was a result of our work than I was from receiving praise from Lord Itsuki and Ms. Ran. I even felt hot.

“Well then, let us continue with the next task. Continuing on from last year, we need to write a request for tax reduction.”

So, if Ash said that he wanted to work even more, naturally I felt motivated as well. “U-Understood! But tax reduction?”

“Exactly. Officially, it is to support the reconstruction of the villages. Do you remember how Torade and Adele were exempt from paying taxes last year to help with the rebuild? We will suggest repeating that this year.”

That was great news for the villages that had suffered from natural disasters. They may have regained their footing this year, but they still had not fully recovered, so paying taxes would have been tough on them.

Although, was that really all right? Just earlier, I had heard Lord Itsuki and Ms. Ran talking about some members of the council in charge of approving the budget opposing that idea.

“W-Won’t it be an issue to do it...t-two years in a row...? L-Last year’s complete tax exemption was already more than generous. W-We should be grateful for that.”

I hadn’t been able to stop myself from adding personal feelings into my statement. Adele village was my birthplace, after all. Even now, my father was still the village chief. He lived there with my siblings. And I also had some friends there... That was why I had felt so motivated to help when Ash had first started to research the previous years’ yields. Especially when he had said that it might help support Adele village. Eventually, as a result of our efforts, Adele was very much saved by the tax exemption. It had allowed them to rebuild the fields and increase their harvest yield over the past year. I was proud of that work.

At the same time, it felt like a stake in my heart. While Adele and Torade, whose yields had decreased due to unfortunate disasters, had been exempt from paying taxes, Ajole and Sekuba, whose crops had failed over a longer period of time, had not been exempt. Of course, my personal connection with Adele had nothing to do with that decision—it was a fair judgment made after examining their past harvest yields. And surely, neither Ash nor Lord Itsuki had exerted any influence either. In fact, Ash shouldn’t even have known that I was born in Adele. And while Lord Itsuki must have had access to that information in his position, I didn’t know if he had checked that thoroughly. In the end, the council members had been convinced purely by numbers and not by any personal feelings.

Even still, it was a stake in my heart. The face of my childhood friend from Ajole kept popping up in my head. We had parted ways after a fight. Objectively, there was no fraud involved. However, there was an unpleasant weight on my chest, as if it were filled with cold water.

“Nevertheless, I think that is the best course of action. This should produce better long-term results.” With those cheerful words, Ash tried pushing away my personal guilt.

He continued to explain what other benefits could be expected from the tax reduction. The count’s reputation was sure to improve after word of a tax reduction in response to natural disasters got out. Any farmers afraid of such disasters would be reassured that they could expect help from above. And surely, that would lead to an increased motivation to hoe their fields.

“Those are the reasons why I think we should continue our support. Or to summarize it, you could say that by showing the count’s generosity, you increase the citizen’s sense of belonging to the territory.”

“Their sense of belonging?”

“Humans tend not to cherish things that they do not consider their own. From small things like coins to bigger ones like plots of land and countries. A sense of belonging makes them think of the plot of land as their own.”

While Ash did not include any personal feelings and only relied on numbers to request a tax reduction, he still factored human emotions into his plan. Ash had no connection to Adele or Torade. Without a doubt, he must have had a very weak sense of belonging to those places.

“I-I see. I didn’t realize those motives existed.”

For that reason, I realized how generous Ash was and how narrow-mindedly I thought. Even though I had a sense of belonging to my hometown, I had not been able to come up with a solution until Ash showed me the way.

As I regretfully dropped my shoulders, Ash tilted his head with a calm facial expression. It was like his warm smile invited me to bring up my concerns.

Ash really was a strange person. Although he was younger than me, he was so reliable. I leaned on him and spoke out to release the cold discomfort deep inside my chest.

“T-To tell the truth, I-I’m from Adele.”

I had said it. Now even Ash might end up being disillusioned with me. I had told myself over and over that there had been no wrongdoings, but I knew very well that it wasn’t fair.

“Oh, I did not know that. You must have been quite worried, then.”

And yet, Ash naturally sympathized with the plight of my hometown.

“A-Are you not angry?”

“Why? Did you do something to make me angry?”

Seeing him ask me with such a gentle expression on his face, I felt like I wanted to depend on him even further—until the stake was pulled from my heart.

“I-I mean, it’s as if I used my position to help my hometown...”

“Ah, I see. You were worrying about that this whole time.” As I opened myself up to him, Ash replied with a gentle smile. “This task was entrusted to you with the approval of your supervisor as well as the acting count Lord Itsuki, who judged you to be the most qualified person for the job.”

His kind words started dissolving the stake in my heart...

“And as your work colleague, I can attest that you did not make any blunders. You have an extremely enthusiastic attitude towards your work, and your seriousness leaves nothing to be desired. If by any chance your work ethic resulted from your personal feelings, then they manifested themselves in a most appropriate manner.”

...until it had completely disappeared.

As if by magic, the pain subsided, and my tense shoulders loosened up again. I was surprised at how much I had actually suffered from that stake in my heart.

“A-Ah... U-Um... Th-Thank you...A-Ash... Y-You don’t have to p-praise me that much.”

“You worked diligently, so I will praise you as much as I like.” It was amazing how Ash knew exactly what to say. “Renge, you are a wonderful person.”

“What?! N-Not at all! I-If anything you are much more wonderful.”

I was not even in the same league as him.

“No, it is laudable how you sympathize with the suffering of others and try to show kindness, even though you are experiencing hardships yourself.”

I was not kind at all. I only felt guilty about Ajole village because of my own cowardice. I knew this all too well. A different stake that was still stuck in my heart started stinging.

“If I had a magic pocket that produced biscuits whenever I tapped it, I would happily distribute biscuits to everyone. However...” he began.

Ash’s metaphor was as sweet as fantastic. Indeed, one could not help but wonder what would have been possible if magic like that existed.

However, Ash’s smile disappeared as he began to talk about reality, which heavily contrasted with his made-up example. “Unfortunately, no one has such a pocket in this world. What is more, you have to support as many people as possible with the contents of a small pocket. And that number is not based on compassion and kindness, but hard facts and reason.”

I knew the coldness of that reality. I had experienced it in the past, and I was still experiencing it now. The coldness squeezed my heart.

In contrast, Ash appeared to easily swallow that ice-like reality. “In the end, though, it is due to a lack of ability. Although that is not really something you can say out loud. If possible, I would love to save everyone in the world. Of course, that would feel much more pleasant.”

It was as though he cheerfully told me that one had to swallow even the things they didn’t like—that it was necessary. And that then, afterwards, you could melt them inside your stomach.

I realized that we were quite different, after all. He had the strength to swallow this reality as cold as ice and melt it inside himself.

“You may feel guilty, but in that case, we should work towards making that pocket bigger. That way, you will not have such a troubled conscience next time.”

“You can make the pocket bigger?”

“Of course.”

Ash’s smile was as warm as always.

●　●　●

While Lady Renge and I were writing the tax exemption request, Lady Maika came to the office. Considering that she was also part of the staff, maybe I should have said she “returned to,” but “came to” was no doubt more appropriate in this case.

“Hi, Ash, Renge. Things have finally calmed down a bit.”

“Much appreciated, Chief Maika.”

Lady Maika showed a wry smile, expressing a mixture of joy and disappointment when she heard me call her by her job title.

“I’m still not used to that title; just call me by my name as usual.”

“But I need to properly treat you as my superior during work.”

“No way!”

As I tried to protest again, she sat down at her desk. On top of said desk, there was a sign that read, “Territory Reform Promotion Office Chief.” Since I had been appointed as a staff member to this office, she was my direct superior.

“That’s too much responsibility for me! You’d be a much better fit for this job.”

“Not at all, Chief Maika. You are much better suited to be in a position of power.”

“Oh, you’re such a smooth talker!” While Lady Maika pouted and complained, it actually seemed like my praise had left her in a good mood.

Reaching a managerial position at the young age of thirteen was considered a precocious success even in this world. Of course, there were good reasons for it.

The Territory Reform Promotion Office for this remote region had been established this winter. Its main duty was to take care of the tasks related to the agriculture development plan and industrial development plan, such as management, administration, implementation, and adjustments. In other words, the plans that we had developed during our time at the academy had been completely delegated to this department. In addition, with Lady Maika and me at the top, followed by Lady Reina, Hermes, and several others from our study group, most of the personnel of the office had been enlisted from the academy. Outsiders like Lady Renge were exceptions.

It was as if the student body of the academy had been transplanted directly into an official office. Even I had my concerns regarding this process. But when I had voiced them to Lord Itsuki, the man bearing the great burden of being the acting count, he had proudly proclaimed, “Well, I guess I can’t leave it to anyone else. And it’s not like anyone else can keep up with you. Besides, one shouldn’t carelessly mix toxic substances together, right?”

That did not sound very decisive to me. What do you mean by “Well, I guess?” Although there was no reason for me to waste energy opposing this arrangement, which, at the end of the day, was also the most convenient for me. There was even less incentive for me to object when considering that putting Lady Maika in charge was in part a scheme to train her in her responsibilities as a blood relative of the count. Her teacher and, by extension, the real supervisor of the Territory Reform Promotion Office was the acting count himself, Lord Itsuki. In fact, Lady Maika had spent most of today at his office, which is why it was more appropriate to say that she had finally “come to,” not “returned to,” our office.

Still, that only made things better. The general was constantly in the direct line of fire, which luckily also allowed the horse to avoid a meaningless death. Considering how convenient this all was, I decided not to intervene and allow the euphoric expression of the acting count, who got to work together with his beloved niece.

In any case, since Lady Maika had finally arrived, I hastily finished the documents and stood up. “I think it is time we go check up on the progress of the laboratory.”

“Yay, a small trip with Ash!” Lady Maika happily exclaimed.

At the laboratory, Lady Reina, the head of management, and Hermes, the head of manufacturing, were waiting for us. First of all, Hermes lined up several fairly large cans. Lady Reina proceeded to explain the contents and detailed the manufacturing date one by one.

“From right to left, we have cooked meat, boiled vegetables, and fruits preserved in syrup. The top column is three months old, the middle one is two months, and the bottom ones are from last month.”

Lady Maika and I looked at the cans in sequential order and let out a sigh.

“Looks like another failure.”

How frustrating. I put a lot of effort into this canned food development plan, but none of the cans had preserved their contents. Either the insides had become rusty or they had exploded.

“Did no one get hurt? Some look really deformed.” Lady Maika looked like a true leader as she confirmed everyone’s safety.

As for me, I was too discouraged to even think about this.

“Yes, we’re all fine. However, the contents were scattered all around the place, so I imagine it would be dangerous if they exploded around people.”

“I see. We need to be cautious, then.”

Since they were used to failures of this degree, neither Lady Maika nor Lady Reina were discouraged. If anything, Hermes seemed worried to see me so openly disheartened.

“It’s unusual to see you this depressed. What’s the matter? Compared to the failures of the stove and the water wheel, this doesn’t seem like a big deal.”

“You may be right, but I expected this to easily succeed, so I am extremely disappointed.”

After all, I had thought that it was enough to make a container out of aluminum and steel, add the contents, heat it all in a water bath or over an open fire, and finally seal the lid while it was still hot. Sealing the lid had been extremely difficult, but we had somehow managed to solder it with tin, making full use of the prototype furnace.

Sure, I had had my doubts in regard to long-term preservation over several months. Our high-temperature pasteurization was probably insufficient, and the can was not perfectly hermetically sealed. Regardless, I had not anticipated such a crushing defeat. First and foremost, the fact that there was rust—or in other words, corrosion—inside, already indicated that it was a failure as a preservation can.

I clearly remembered that canned foods had been preserved in aluminum and steel cans in my past life, but maybe they had an extra layer on the inside? Like a coating to prevent corrosion. The more I learned about cans, the more impressive they appeared. They were simple and commonplace items in my past life, but at the same time also ingenious contraptions. I wondered what bright ideas had gone into making mere canned foods. Just thinking about it made me tremble with excitement.

“Unbelievable—you’ve already recovered again. You were brooding moments ago...”

Upon hearing Hermes voice his admiration, I came back to my senses. I looked up and saw everyone’s awkward smiles.

“Just as you’d expect from Ash. Recovering from an unusual slump all by himself,” Lady Reina remarked.

“There wasn’t even any time for me to comfort him...” Lady Maika murmured. This time she was the one in low spirits.

It appeared that I had caused some trouble. Anyways, as the plan’s original proponent, I had to inform them of the fact that we would not be able to make canned food for the time being.

“I am afraid that, for now, I have no more ideas for improving the manufacturing of preserved foods using aluminum and steel cans. So, with a heavy heart, I propose...” I dropped my shoulders and sighed. “I propose to use glass jars instead.”

On top of breaking easily, glass was harder to produce than metal cans in our current environment, so I had tried avoiding this method, but there was no longer any way around it. We needed preserved foods right away, for both the soldiers patrolling the territory day by day as well as myself, since I was planning to travel all over the place too.

“It is the same principle as the metal cans. However, the material necessary for the lid... Is something wrong?”

As I looked around, I once again saw everyone putting on an awkward smile. Is this déjà vu?

“Just as you’d expect from Ash.” Hermes repeated his line from earlier and smiled at Lady Reina, who was standing next to him.

She reciprocated in a cheerful yet exasperated voice. “Yes, indeed. He immediately comes up with a backup plan, not leaving us any time to be discouraged.”

“You’re taking the words out of my mouth. But glass jars? I don’t think anyone here can make those,” he said.

Hermes surveyed the scene, but as expected, even the prisoners shook their heads. Still, we did have some ceramic craftsmen.

“Right. So, could you please make porcelain jars for the time being? I will try to find a way to obtain glass,” I told them.

I was probably going to ask Mr. Quid to import some glass jars that could be used as prototypes. Manufacturing glass took a lot of time and effort, so it was probably better to wait until after conducting some trials.

Since everyone seemed to agree with that proposal, I moved on to the next topic with a clap of my hands. “Next up, Hermes, how is the lathe?”

“It’s fun!”

I’m glad to hear that, but that’s not exactly what I wanted to know. Although I guess it implies everything’s going smoothly.

As I was not sure how to proceed, faced with his big smile, Lady Reina came to the rescue. She stepped on Hermes’s foot, which made his smile disappear. “Hermes, that’s not what he was asking. You know that, right?”

“A-Ah, y-yeah. Um, well, it’s quite stable now, after fixing the problems that I encountered while making the metal cans. And I’ve probably gotten more used to it.”

I had introduced the lathe as part of the industrial development plan to improve our manufacturing abilities. Its structure was fairly simple, but it had an adaptability that turned it into an all-purpose tool. In a world where everything from filing to cutting relied on human strength, it truly was a revolutionary machine. However, there were still some problems in regard to its motive power.

Hermes elaborated on the issues while scratching his cheek. “Since it’s powered by the water wheel, there are some days when it requires slight adjustments, and others when you can’t use it at all. I want to do something about that.”

“Yes, that sounds bothersome.”

While the water wheel had a fairly stable power output compared to human strength, it was reliant on the water level of the river that rotated its wheels. On rainy days, it could get too much momentum and maybe even break, whereas on consecutive sunny days it was too weak and useless. Unlike human strength, it was not possible to adjust its output at will. It made me respect electricity’s outstanding reliability even more.

“It appears that we have to improve the water wheel after all. We need a more stable source of power.”

“Agreed. I want to work with more precision.”

“Especially if you want to build an airplane.”

Hearing me voice his ambitions, Hermes showed a proud smile.

Still, putting the airplane plan aside for now, it was too inconvenient to have the water wheel’s use be limited by the river’s water level fluctuations.

“If we could find a way to make a steam engine work, we would not have to deal with the water wheel’s issues...”

I was currently in the process of researching the steam engine, but so far, I had only managed to produce a toylike model. At this rate, it would take at least one or two more years before it was possible to experiment with a prototype.

Even though I was the one who was planning all this, imagining that the same laboratory that was currently discussing the water wheel’s inconveniences was going to test a steam engine in about two years’ time almost felt like time travel. I guess you could say that some of the knowledge has in fact slipped through time.

While the pioneers who had developed the steam engine may have had the goal of producing a stable motive power in their eyes, they had still needed to start with the technical journey of how to get there. In contrast, I already knew which parts I needed and how to put them together (barring some possible measurement errors). An idea could only turn into a new invention as long as the right technology was available to the developer. Otherwise, it was useless. Be it the water wheel, the steam engine, or the aircraft, they were all products of a novel and correct assortment of existing technology at the time. As someone who knew what technology was necessary and how to properly assort it, I was enjoying quite the advantage. All that was left now was to develop the necessary technology to produce these inventions.

Since I did not need to come up with the idea of the steam engine, that left me with the need for metalworking technology capable of manufacturing a shell that could withstand the steam pressure and not let it escape. In order to fulfill that requirement, I needed to improve the furnace or kiln, as well as Hermes’s new favorite toy: the lathe. Once both of these had reached a certain standard, we could immediately start making a steam engine prototype. After all, one of the lab members had already gotten ahead of himself and made a model.

I was already looking forward to it, but as a preliminary step, it was still necessary to improve the water wheel’s output power. Besides, there was no harm in optimizing the water wheel’s performance as much as possible, since fuel consumption was still going to pose a problem. At the very least, the water wheel was still going to be of use for the next few decades. I wondered how long it was going to take for the steam engine to be introduced to Noscula village. Until then, we had no choice but to rely on the water wheel.

“Thank you for your opinion. I will see if I can find any literature on how to improve the water wheel.” I’ll take this opportunity to look up windmills too.

With water wheels alone, we were still confined to the riverbank. Sure, it is true that the manufacturing industry ordinarily relied on water, but it was good to have several options.

“So, I assume everyone is okay with continuing to improve the water wheel?”

There was one more thing that I needed to check. We had used the lathe not only to make cans for preserved food but also a bigger can for the dry distillation of wood. The idea was to retrieve the chemicals inside the wood and make charcoal. In this case, dry distillation involves a process of pyrolytic decomposition, and it’s usually called destructive distillation, which is achieved by heating the wood without igniting it.

Just like liquid evaporates when boiled, the components inside wood also turn into steam when heated. While charcoal is made from the charred remains after the vaporization, our research had focused on the steam this time. That was the purpose of the large can—a prototype of a dry distillation apparatus. It had produced a watery wood vinegar and thick wood tar. By carrying out fractional distillation and decomposing the wood vinegar even further, it was possible to obtain the right substance.

Lady Reina showed us a glass bottle containing the colorless and transparent liquid. “I made this according to your instructions and...”

“Thank you. Judging from the color, it looks like it worked, but that is a very small amount.”

“Yes, I’m surprised by how little it produced.”

No wonder she had such a puzzled look on her face. I was surprised myself. Since I had wanted to produce charcoal, I had asked them to dry distill ten kilograms worth of firewood, but there was just about a hundred milliliters or less inside the glass bottle.

“Mass-producing this seems impossible for the time being,” I concluded.

“I’m afraid so. At the very least, we need to increase the size of our equipment... Also, we should optimize it. Right now, our fuel cost is quite high.”

“How much did you spend?”

In response to my question, Lady Reina, who had been appointed head manager of the laboratory mainly to take care of the budget, slowly handed me the report. There was no need to read through it in detail—the number was one digit higher than what I had expected.

“We have to make sure to extract it on top of producing charcoal, otherwise mass production is not feasible at all. And we will have to review charcoal production from the ground up if we want to do this.”

We would have to ask all the charcoal makers to use our dry distilling equipment. And surely, they were not going to readily agree with changing their traditional methods. Especially considering the installation and maintenance fees.

“In the meantime, we will have to content ourselves with small quantities.”

I let out a sigh while replacing the small bottle’s lid with one that had a thick string passing through. One end of the string was soaked in the contents of the bottle and the other was hanging outside it. Everyone observed me closely as I took out a small branch from the embers of the stove and lit the side of the string coming out of the bottle. Naturally, the string caught on fire and kept burning without going out.

“That went well.”

The liquid inside the glass bottle was methanol extract—a kind of alcohol. This glass bottle was the prototype for a spirit lamp.

“What? How does this work?” After a while, Lady Maika bent forward to take a look at the flame that did not go out at all.

“It is the same as a candle. Just like a candle’s wick does not burn out as long as there is wax, this string keeps burning as long as there is alcohol inside the bottle.”

“Oh... Really? Why?”

“Apparently, because it is not actually the wick that is burning but rather the alcohol that it soaks up.”

This one lamp encapsulated so many interesting scientific phenomena. Fire truly was a symbol of wisdom.

“Hmm... And that’s it? If it’s the same, why not just use a candle?” Lady Maika asked.

“If you put it like that, I am not sure how to answer. Originally, I hoped it could be a substitute for candles.”

This world’s nights were long and there were not many ways to illuminate them. I had hoped this idea was going to help solve this problem. If there had been a way to efficiently obtain methanol, I would have liked to popularize these spirit lamps as another method of illumination alongside the candle.

“But it does not seem to be very cost-effective. Although, since it produces less soot and a more stable light than candles, maybe we could start by selling it as a luxury item to nobles and wealthy merchants... No, that probably would not work either.”

For a start, the only ones who worked so late that they needed candles were not wealthy people anyway, so there was not much of a demand. It might have sold with collectors of curious things, but my objective was the propagation of artificial illumination at night rather than sales.

“I guess my initial objective will not come to fruition for quite some time. I will try to discuss the matter with Mr. Quid and Lord Itsuki. There may be another use for it.”

The cans were a failure. And it did not seem like the spirit lamp was going to fulfill its intended purpose either. Even the lathe, which was the only project moving along well, still had a lot of room for improvement. In the end, this time’s progress was not very satisfactory.

“Oh dear...”

I had managed to reach a decent social standing, recruit partners who helped me, and increase our available resources, but my dreams were still not within reach. This world’s reality was truly harsh.

“I just cannot afford to stand still.”

How much further will I have to run until I can catch a break? Don’t tell me I’ll have to keep going at full speed until I die. But if that was what this world had intended for me, then I was prepared to run to the depths of Hell. I had made up my mind a long time ago. And don’t think I’m going to hold back from rummaging through Hell either. I wondered who was going to regret the challenge in the end.

“All right, everyone! Let us keep moving forward at this pace! We are slowly but surely getting closer to the glory of the ancient civilization!”

At the very least, I was sure it was not going to be me. I was going to keep rolling on the road to my dreams with a smile on my face.

After checking up on the laboratory’s progress, I had to contact all the different departments. First, I had to talk to Mr. Quid about the glass jars necessary for developing preserved foods. Next, I had to ask Mother Yae for help to research ways to improve the water wheel and the lathe’s motive power. And finally, I needed to consult with Mr. Quid and Lord Itsuki about ways to make use of the spirit lamp.

Not being able to slow down, I wondered which one of these I should prioritize. I had to find the shortest way towards my goals. Which one was the best choice? After being lost in thought for a moment, I decided to leave the decision to the other members and run off on a different path.

In addition to my work at the promotion office, I also worked for the military. Thus, I simultaneously held the titles of head planner of the Territory Reform Promotion Office and adjutant to the regional knight Sir George. I was no longer an apprentice, but an official adjutant.

I headed towards the military office, located within the administrative halls. The room had been allocated to Sir George due to his prominence as a military figure.

“Welcome!”

As I opened the door, I was greeted by an odor much different from the one filling the promotion office, which was primarily occupied by women. This was the foul stench of the men’s world!

“Sir! Thank you for your hard work!”

“We were waiting for your arrival, Sir Ash!”

They took a bow as their rough voices resounded in unison. I felt like the leader of a crime syndicate that cut off people’s fingers. As a novice, I also felt flattered by their welcome, so I urged them to sit down with a smile.

Looking around the room, I noticed that Sir George was missing. Moreover, someone had collapsed onto a table and was not moving at all. He did not look too bad, though, so I just checked with the others.

“Did anything happen while I was gone?”

The bald-headed Roland vigorously stood up. “No, Sir. There have been no emergencies. All our duties have been carried out without any problems. First, I would like you to take a look at our report on the packaged meals for expeditions.”

“Understood. Thank you, Roland.”

It was a clear and concise report befitting of a soldier. As I sat down, Roland handed me the soldiers’ summaries. They had been working on a proposal to determine the basic amount of food necessary for troops that went outside the city to patrol and guard the territory. Until now, there had only been a rough estimate due to several reasons. However, looking at it from the point of view of the person in charge of the warehouse and finances, it was a huge waste of resources. In an attempt to prevent those losses, Sir George’s company had gone on the offensive.

“I see you were able to calculate the average amount per person,” I pointed out.

“Yes! The whole company went through strenuous efforts.”

Apart from the person face-planting on the desk, everyone had a big, fierce smile on their face. It appeared that many soldiers had not been very cooperative in calculating the amount of food necessary for their meals.

After surveying the expressions of the middle-aged men, who happened to also be my subordinates, I nodded. “I will make sure your efforts will not go to waste. Leave the rest to me and Sir George. We will make sure that this proposal gets accepted.”

“Thank you!”

“Sir, we are counting on you!”

“Our adjutant will mow down anyone who gets in our way!”

I’m happy you trust me, but I’m not planning on killing anyone. Although accidents may still happen.

“By the way, is Glen all right? He still does not seem to get up.”

Roland grinned when I asked him about Glen, who had been assigned to Sir George’s company this spring and was currently lying headfirst on a desk. Roland’s smile resembled that of a demon, those that devoured children whole.

“He just overworked himself. But he’s got talent, so he’ll get used to it.”

“Yeah, yeah! Sergeant Roland made Glen write out the averages under constant supervision.”

“Not bad at all for a rookie. As you’d expect from a former classmate of our adjutant.”

The seniors showed slightly crooked smiles. It appeared that Glen had undergone his baptism as a fresh recruit.

Nonetheless, examining the writing on the report, I noticed that Glen’s section was shorter than those of the other troops. Therefore, taking Roland’s supervision into consideration, it was not so much bullying as a test of his practical skills. Sir George’s company just did not know how to hold back, since they were all demons from the Asura realm, who until recently had performed the insane task of reviewing the entire warehouse equipment once a year.

“Oh, I see. Given that this is not his favorite type of task, Glen did well.”

Glen himself was aware that, while he was a fearless fighter who had been the second-best in terms of fighting prowess in our year, he was not very good at performing intellectual labor or tasks requiring attention to detail. To someone like him, quantifying the different types of meals consumed by hundreds of soldiers and writing out an average amount must have been a steep hill to climb. I greatly valued his efforts to challenge a task that he was not very good at.

“Ahhh... If you praise me, that must mean I’ve become a little smarter.” Seemingly revived by my words of praise, Glen raised his head. He had pronounced dark circles under his eyes.

“That is the result of your continued, honest effort from your days at the military academy. You kept at it more than others, for both your training and your studies.”

“Ha ha... You’re right. Two years ago, I probably wouldn’t have been able to complete this task.” Glen smiled while scratching his tanned forehead.

When we had first met, Glen was a devout believer in muscles over mind. From a young age, he had admired stories of heroes slaying hordes of demons, and he had a good physique himself. No matter what, he constantly thought about wielding a sword—or rather, I should say he wielded a sword before thinking. As such, he had also anticipated the military academy to be a place for training his body and not his mind.

He was not an exception. Among those that aspired to become soldiers, many were like him, and more than half of the boys that enrolled at the academy wanted to become soldiers. No wonder the classes at the academy had often been extended. Maika’s study group had also been a huge success.

On the other hand, the majority of girls joined the academy in the hopes of becoming maids. That also explained why there were so many women among the priests at the temple and the civil officials at the administrative halls.

Glen, who had renounced his faith in muscles over mind—or rather, had undergone a partial conversion—stood up and stretched his body while looking at me. “I’ve just been calculating as Sergeant Roland told me to, but what’s this actually for?” I was able to hear a crack as Glen inclined his head in bewilderment. His shoulders must have been very stiff.

“Ah, well, you are probably aware that it concerns the food for the soldiers that patrol outside the city. And as someone who has been on a camping trip, I am sure you would agree that it is good to have a rough estimate of how much food you need to travel for a given amount of time.”

In fact, it took quite a long time for people who were not good at math to prepare their provisions.

“But wouldn’t it be good enough to just give them a rough estimate? Is there some other reason I don’t know about?” Glen asked.

“You only joined halfway through, so maybe I forgot to properly explain it to you.”

“Yeah, I don’t remember anything. Unless someone told me while I was calculating.” Glen scratched his head, not sure of himself.

I imagined it was hard for him to process new information while performing a difficult task. Just earlier, his mental circuits had broken as a result of doing too much arithmetic.

“Simply put, we have put together a proposal to prevent people from wasting our stockpiles by taking excessive amounts of food.”

“People take out that food in excess?” he frowned, doubting the honesty of my statement. He seemed to recoil at the mere thought of the stockpiled food’s bad taste. “Really? Someone’s taking out more than necessary of that dried meat that resembles withered branches? Of those biscuits that are as hard as iron? They’ve got some strange tastes...” Glen, who had experienced the bad taste of the stockpile reserves first-hand during our camping trip, murmured to himself as if he had discovered an incomprehensible life-form.

In response, Sir George’s troops and I waved our hands while smiling, and assured him that there was no such weirdo among us. “Rest assured, no one likes that food,” I said. “Those things were made with long-term preservation in mind, without taking into account taste at all.”

The biscuits especially had the potential to break your teeth if you ate them raw. They were so hard that people referred to them as “edible shields.” Some soldiers also joked that they had been saved by a biscuit blocking off a werewolf’s claws before. To be honest, those biscuits were actually so rock-solid that I was half-tempted to believe that story.

The dried meat was not much better. It was dried meat pickled in salt, so it was more salt than meat. If you ate it uncooked, it felt as if you turned into pickled meat yourself when taking a bite. The best way to eat it was to use it as a soup ingredient. That way you could enjoy salt-flavored soup. However, you could not expect to taste any meat flavor at all. It was more salt than meat after all.

Both of these preserved foods failed to meet the bare minimum necessary to qualify them as enjoyable meals. And unfortunately, they also represented the limits of long-term preserved food in this world. In fact, they were emergency rations to be consumed once the city had run out of food, in the event of a mass displacement of citizens due to bad harvests or demon attacks. Even among preserved foods, these were probably the ones that had received the lowest consideration in terms of taste. While they were certainly better than eating tree bark, they were not meant to be consumed as packaged meals. They were truly only meant for emergencies—to avoid dying from starvation.

Since these foods were manufactured mainly during the autumn harvest, the majority got spoiled inside the warehouse. And needless to mention, rotten food was thrown away. While they served the important purpose of minimizing harm in the worst-case scenario, they were also highly disposable items, which was a huge waste in a world plagued by hunger. As such, the domain’s population had come to the following conclusion, “We’ll get cursed if we throw away food. We should use it up before it spoils, starting with those that look worst! What a genius idea! Let’s get to work!”

However, it seemed unlikely that anyone who wasn’t starving was going to eat such awful-tasting food. Moreover, it did not seem like the best idea to feed food past its expiry date to those who were starving. Anyone who was already weakened from hunger may have just died from eating half-spoiled food. It definitely would not have been a good look if supplies from the count had delivered the coup de grâce.

From there, the conversation shifted to, “What about giving them to those strong soldiers? They need preserved meals for their patrols. These emergency rations count as preserved meals, right?” As a result, the soldiers had ended up paying the price. Poor guys. They did not want to take food that was akin to poison on their already tough trips outside the city either. And their loyalty was not strong enough that they would have just eaten the unpalatable food without saying anything. Therefore, they thought to themselves, “How about we sell these so-called provisions and buy some actual food with the profits? We can easily get better dried meat, hard-baked bread, or other pickled food. What a genius idea! Let’s get to work!”

The only problem was where they were going to sell them. And who was going to buy them? Most people would have hesitated to receive them even for free. Still, there were people who did not have enough food, so the provisions were not impossible to sell. Besides, they were the soldiers who kept the peace of the domain. Surely, borrowing a little money was not going to be punished. If they sold the food for cheap, they probably could get a poor, starving person to buy it from them. However, if they were going to sell it for cheap, they needed to sell lots. And since there was no limit on how much they were allowed to take out, and no one knew what could happen outside the city, they decided to take more than necessary “as a precaution.”

“That pretty much explains the current situation of the troops’ packaged meals. To be frank, it is a hotbed of illegal acts: embezzlement, extortion, and collusion,” I concluded.

“No doubt that’s a bad thing, but I can’t bring myself to blame them too strongly,” Glen expressed his honest feelings.

Everyone in Sir George’s company agreed with him. It was easy to see how none of these illegal acts had turned into a problem until now.

“There is tacit approval from everyone. Shows you how bad that stockpiled food really is.”

No one who had tasted those provisions even once was going to denounce their illegal acts. Especially since they were accompanied by that stench of decay. It was no wonder that most soldiers had been so uncooperative in regard to the survey on their average meal quantities. If the provisions ended up getting limited, their sales would decrease, and in turn, they would no longer be able to buy decent packaged meals.

“Taking all that into account, this proposal suggests stopping the recycling of old stockpiles as packaged meals for the troops.”

“How bold!” Surprised, Glen added, “As expected from you.”

“That’s a bigger incident than expected,” Roland said.

“Incident?” I asked.

I was working on projects and assignments, but I did not recall causing any incidents.

“Yeah, isn’t that a major incident? To break such a longstanding rule of the troops? Is it even possible?”

“I am not planning to break anything; I just want to mend some bad habits. Do not forget that the acting count Lord Itsuki is the person in charge of the military. I am sure he will understand.” Lord Itsuki was a ruler who cherished his troops. He knew very well how important it was to maintain their good morale. “Besides, while the whole issue is currently being overlooked, it is still undeniably a crime. And it is a huge problem that the soldiers who are supposed to enforce the law are criminals themselves.”

“I guess you’re right about that. I can already hear the people saying, ‘How dare they.’”

“Since the provisions are being sold to merchants, many citizens are already aware of the situation. And what is the difference between a corrupt soldier and a thief? Aside from the scale of their crime.”

This issue was counterproductive to the maintenance of the domain’s public order. The existence of criminals only gave birth to more criminals. And rising crime eventually led to more and more atrocious acts.

“Supply the soldiers with better packaged meals—that is all you need to do to solve this serious problem. In addition, we will restore a healthier marketplace by getting rid of all those merchants who were buying and circulating the half-rotten stockpiles.”

Having the count’s side causing such disarray was a recipe for disaster.

Glen had nodded along to most of what I was saying, but now he paused and tilted his head in confusion. “That all sounds good, but what about the money? The stockpiled rations are collected as taxes, so they are essentially free, right? If you buy the food from the market instead, that will cost money.”

“We examined that part in close detail in our proposal.”

After all, the practice of repurposing the provisions as packaged meals had originated from an attempt to make full use of the limited resources available. This may have sounded rude, but if this region had not been so stricken by poverty, these problems would not have occurred. That was not the case, though—the remote countryside of the region was almost by definition poor.

“It is true that it will be more expensive.”

“Won’t it be difficult to pass, then? I don’t know much myself, but I get the impression that proposals are less likely to get approval the more expensive it is to carry them out.”

That’s right. “However, that same money will also flow back into the domain’s economy. Although, to be precise, it will be food rather than money.”

“How so?”

“The merchants that relied on the stockpiles will have to start selling proper food.”

That was the benefit of replacing the stockpiles—which even someone as serious as Glen was hesitant to put in their mouth—with proper food. I was sure Lord Itsuki was going to understand.

“At any rate, tightening the troop’s discipline is my main objective. Those who are supposed to catch criminals cannot habitually commit crimes themselves. Any resulting costs from this plan can also be considered a profit if you look at the whole picture.”

For the rest, I just needed to downplay the drawbacks and explain the benefits as enticingly and thoroughly as possible. I was not going to lie. The listeners might just end up with a slightly biased view of the situation.

Of course, I was expecting pushback from soldiers bothered by having to change their habits. However, I was sure they would welcome not having to go through the effort of selling their rations. Especially once they realized that their packaged meals were not going to drop in quality. Anyone who opposed the changes beyond that most likely abused the current practices to fill their own pockets. And someone like that was an enemy whom I was ready to purge with Lord Itsuki on my side. Be prepared. We’re coming for you.

Several days later, Sir George approved the proposal for the packaged meals after looking through it. Not losing any time, I immediately booked an appointment with Lord Itsuki and got ready to argue in favor of our plan. As Sir George’s attendant, I had been appointed with this task. Isn’t that supposed to be the highest-ranking officer’s job?

“And this sums up the proposal of the regional troops led by Sir George. Do you have any questions?”

“As always, your explanations are easy to understand,” the acting count said.

Lord Itsuki smiled as if he were watching a comedy at the theater. He completely looked like an uncle having a good time with his niece, who sat next to him with a similar smile on her face. Yes, today Lady Maika was once again working in Lord Itsuki’s office for her apprenticeship as a governing noble.

“You’re great at this, Ash! You gloss over the disadvantages and elaborate on the profits only!”

“Maika, that almost makes it sound like fraud...”

I could not say with certainty that there were going to be profits, but I believed from the bottom of my heart that the projected results looked promising if we succeeded. As for the success rate? I was not sure which formula to use to determine that.

“I concur with Maika. I’m always impressed by your eloquent speech.” After agreeing with his niece, Lord Itsuki cleared his throat and started speaking in a more serious tone. “Well, it does sound like a plan with nothing but advantages. Maika, I imagine you are also interested in this proposal as the head of the Territory Reform Promotion Office. What are your thoughts?”

It appeared that Lord Itsuki was going to use this proposal as an opportunity to teach Lady Maika. Seeing that Lord Itsuki had changed his attitude from that of an uncle to that of an acting count, Lady Maika also straightened up. Her lively, cheerful personality, typical of a young girl, gave way to a more refined and serious look as she articulated her rational opinion. Her formal speech was a pleasure for the ears.

“Let me see. A lot has already been said about the merits for our troops, so I do not think there is much I can add to that. In regard to the entire territory, I think the increased circulation of food will be a net positive.”

Lord Itsuki fleetingly glanced in my direction after her reply. Apparently, he wanted to brag that his niece had given the perfect answer. Yes, I got it. I’m also surprised by her growth. Please continue the test.

“Why is that? The packaged meals have always been bought from the market. Wouldn’t there be less food in circulation given that the stockpiles will no longer be sold?” Lord Itsuki asked.

“That is improbable. In fact, you could say that the current method is decreasing the amount of food circulating in the market.”

“What do you mean?”

“The rations taste horrible. They are defective products in the marketplace. Imagine you had a wagon that could only carry ten items and three of those were already defective. That would mean you could only deliver seven proper meals, missing out on the profits from the three defective ones.”

Lord Itsuki gave an extremely strained smile at the mention of “defective products.”

Lady Maika continued, “Furthermore, those three defective meals will cast a shadow on the merchant’s earnings. For the clients that will mean they have to settle for poorer meals, but on a regional scale it may prevent the opportunity for dozens of potential merchants to start their businesses.”

“Hm. Do we need that many merchants?”

“Merchants fulfill the role of distributing goods across regions, making sure none are short on resources. Naturally, this also applies to food. If our territory ever faces a famine, merchants will be more likely to bring food from other places. In that case, the more numerous they are, the better.”

“I concur,” I said. “It would have the same effect as stocking up on food reserves.”

After reviewing his niece’s growth as a professional, Lord Itsuki once again reassessed the situation on his own. He carefully looked over the documents that I had handed him and asked Lady Maika another question.

“Should we get rid of our current stockpiles then?”

“Hmm...” It seemed like she was about to agree for a moment, but then she quickly shook her head. “No, we still need those. Even if a war with neighboring domains seems unlikely, we cannot ignore the possibility of demon attacks or poor harvests.”

“Yeah, I thought so too. In that case, we can’t reduce any costs.”

The emergency rations were provided for free anyways, so there were going to be costs no matter what—Lord Itsuki would have to give up on reducing expenses there.

In an attempt to uplift the disappointed Lord Itsuki, Lady Maika frowned as she carefully chose her next words. “However, we probably should re-examine the current stockpiling system. There are too many problems. We should slightly reduce the storage period and process the rations before they spoil.”

“That would be ideal, but once again, that will place a burden on us. Not just in terms of money, but also in personnel,” Lord Itsuki countered.

“Indeed. We will not be able to do it all at once. Remember that we are currently developing preserved foods at the Territory Reform Promotion Office. I will try to come up with a solution once I get back,” Lady Maika said.

Now that the acting count and his aide had come to an agreement, he nodded in my direction. “You heard it. I will give you an official answer after deliberating on some of the finer issues, but personally, I am in favor. First, I would like you to carry out some practice tests.”

As I made merry and assumed a victory pose on the inside, I took a deep bow. Nothing beats having a reasonable supervisor. “Understood. I will arrange a suitable expedition and prepare the test meals.”

Lord Itsuki’s laughter echoed in the room. “Nothing beats having a subordinate who’s quick on the uptake. Work just moves along smoothly, and we can start settling issues that were put on hold.”

“I am honored by your words.”

“Well, would you look at the time. Maika, this is all for today. How about you show some appreciation to your subordinate?” Lord Itsuki, who was in high spirits, handed his niece some money.

“Are you sure? Thanks, uncle!”

Lady Maika’s smile resembled a blossoming flower as she looked at the weight in her hand. Lord Itsuki particularly liked that expression of hers—I could see why.

“Ash! Let me treat you to dinner tonight! As the chief, I will reward you for your daily hard work!”

With your supervisor’s money! Of course, I did not say anything so tactless. The trick to being treated to anything is to make your benefactor feel good about giving you money.

“I am blessed to have such a wonderful superior. I look forward to working with you for many years to come!”

“Many years to—” It appeared that my words had struck a chord with Lady Maika, who turned bright red as blood rushed to her head. “Y-Y-You can count on me! If you like, I can always take care of your meals from here on out!”

That would be less like a wonderful superior and more like a woman providing for a financially dependent man.

I silently bowed my head towards her superior, Lord Itsuki. As a subordinate, I always looked forward to free meals.

With Lord Itsuki’s remuneration in hand, Lady Maika and I visited Chef Yacoo’s home, famously known as Cinnamon’s Light throughout the Sacula region. I felt bad for the other restaurants, but nothing could beat the food here. Not to mention that the recipes that I had given to Chef Yacoo had been incorporated into the menu, so it was possible to eat Hamburg steak and pizza. There was really no other option for Lady Maika, who loved Hamburg steak. We took up seats at a largish table and toasted with our wooden cups.

“You can eat as much as you want today, Ash!”

“I will gladly take you up on your offer.”

Since we were both quite familiar with each other, I readily agreed. Considering that Lady Maika had already ordered three plates of Hamburg steak, there was not much point in holding back. Like a naughty child, she energetically sunk her teeth into the Hamburg steak. I remembered how she had switched into work mode just earlier as I scooped up a piece of chicken from my stew.

“I was quite impressed by your conversation with Lord Itsuki earlier. You accurately perceived the possible impact of the proposal.”

“Really? Heh heh, you flatter me.”

It was worth praising her just to see her happy face alone. This chicken’s great.

Distracted by the delicious chicken in my mouth, I continued giving my impressions from today. “I was happy to see how much you have grown. It is a large issue, but you managed to pin down the gist and distill the essential problems. Your arguments were also very clear and persuasive.”

Lady Maika defended herself against my onslaught of praise with a bashful smile.

“It was also great how you decided to avoid certain subjects. Especially since you are not really involved in the military. It would have been difficult to find common ground in regard to the stockpile’s modifications. You did well to not go into those things.”

“Ah, yeah. I know it’s important, but I wasn’t sure I could make a convincing argument, so I just glossed over it.” Lady Maika nodded as she stuffed her cheeks with meat. “But it makes sense hearing your explanation. Since I don’t know much about the military, I can’t really say much either. It probably wouldn’t have been possible to reach a conclusion on the stockpiles.”

“Yes, that is spot on. It seems like you have great intuition.”

“Not at all! Discussions like that are really hard!”

Regular discussions were easy so long as you did not mind the arguments being all over the place. However, productive discussions required high communication skills and some shared knowledge from both parties.

Having more or less finished my review of Lady Maika’s speech and conduct from today, I now fully dedicated myself to my stew. All the stews at this restaurant were exquisite. You could see and taste the careful workmanship that went into the dish.

As I smiled from ear to ear, Lady Maika, who had already finished two Hamburg steaks, gazed at me as she stuck her fork into the third one. “Ash, you really are amazing!”

“Wha—What makes you say that?”

As I tilted my head while chewing the chicken, Lady Maika crammed the Hamburg steak into her mouth with a proud look about her. Is she by any chance proud of this restaurant’s delicious Hamburg steaks?

“Today’s proposal was great, and you’ve just got so many amazing talents. But what is even more amazing is the way you manage to motivate others. When you praise me, I feel like I can achieve so much more!”

“Is that so? I am pleased that you feel that way.”

I always carefully chose my words when praising people. In my experience, people were more likely to grow from praise than from scolding. As someone who wanted to gather as many talented people as possible, it was my philosophy to praise people whenever the opportunity presented itself. Thankfully, that was an easy task, since there was so much great talent around me. At first, I had started doing it because I had been impressed, but before I knew it, this had become my philosophy.

“Yes! At the very least, I like it when you praise me! So don’t hold back!”

“If my praise is any good to you, I will praise you as much as you want. You are becoming more self-reliant every day after all.”

She really was on a path of steady progress. I had been impressed by her thoughts regarding merchants and market circulation. The days when I had taught her how to read and write in the desolate church at the farm village seemed so distant in the past now. Lady Maika’s fast growth was even more impressive if you considered that it had in fact only been five years since then. Having someone like her help me fulfill my dreams was like finding a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

“Maika, someone as talented as you is hard to come by. You are precious to me.”

“Wha—!”

Lady Maika turned red as shivers ran down her spine. She must really like receiving praise. How cute!

Renge’s Perspective

The administrative halls were surrounded by mansions of senior statesmen. Most civic officials and military officers working here either lodged in one of those mansions or owned one themselves—probably because they preferred living close to their workplace. Coming from the countryside, I counted myself among those people. I was lodging at Ms. Ran’s mansion. She was Lord Itsuki’s personal maid.

As I returned to my room, I saw my roommate—Ms. Azami—taking off her dark blue maid robe.

“Welcome back, Renge! You’re early today.”

“I-I’m home. Um, Lady Maika invited everyone at the promotion office to dinner tonight.”

I unintentionally smiled while telling my senior about my plans. As an introvert, I usually didn’t get invited, so it made me happy. Not to mention that we were going to a restaurant famous for its delicious food! I wasn’t able to suppress my enthusiasm.

“Nice! Where are you going?”

“To C-Cinnamon’s Light.”

“Wow! They managed to book a table there? Wait. Since you only told me now, does that mean it was only decided today? Isn’t it amazing they got a same-day reservation?”

“Y-Yeah, it is.”

Ash and Lady Maika were on good terms with Chef Yacoo, so they were able to reserve a table fairly easily. Previously, when I had told Ash how difficult it was to get a table there, he had stared at me in puzzlement. Apparently, he had never been turned down when making a same-day reservation.

“Ash’s something else... He’s treated as a guest of honor.”

“Y-Yeah, i-it’s amazing...”

When it came to that restaurant, Ash’s name carried the same authority as the count’s family name.

I took off my cape and opened the closet. Since the dinner wasn’t work-related, I was going to change into a slightly brighter cape.

“Wait, Renge. You’re not seriously planning on going there in your maid outfit, are you?”

“Y-Yes? Um... It’s not dirty a-and it won’t breach etiquette, right?”

“Don’t worry about etiquette! That’s not what I mean. Ash always sees you in that outfit, so how about you show him how cute you can look?”

“B-But just changing clothes won’t...”

“Come on, you’re a hidden gem. If you put on some brighter clothes, your impression will...” Ms. Azami looked up at the ceiling after peeking into my closet. “And of course you only have dark clothes... What were you thinking, Renge?”

“B-Bright clothes don’t suit me at all...”

“But you’re still a young maiden at heart! Guess I’ve got no choice...” Ms. Azami jumped out into the corridor and shouted in a loud voice, “Everyone! All the maids who are free right now, gather around Princess Renge!” At once, noise could be heard from the corridor. “I’m looking for cute clothes that fit Renge! She’s going out to drink with Ash tonight!”

And suddenly...

“What? Really?”

“Oh, okay. Yeah, she needs to put in some effort.”

“Where are they going? Cinnamon? I want to go too!”

“For Renge? I’ve got some clothes that I want her to try on.”

“It may be a bit difficult. Some of Renge’s sizes are...”

“You don’t have to say anything more!”

Before I realized what was happening, it had turned into a major incident. While I had been busy getting flustered, my seniors had already brought their clothes and started commenting as they held them up against my body.

“Doesn’t this one expose too much skin for someone like Renge?”

“It’s not a one-on-one date after all. We should go for a neat and simple dress.”

“What a shame, it looked so good...”

“I’m jealous of her childlike face. It creates such a good contrast with her figure.”

“Maybe something white with some lighter-color highlights?”

“Yeah, primary colors probably won’t make her stand out enough.”

“It’s settled then! This will be Renge’s date outfit for tonight!”

It was a white, long-sleeved dress, with the collar, sleeves, and hemline dyed in light purple. The design was simple. It looked similar to my usual maid outfit, but the fabric was a little thinner—it accentuated the shape of my body. Moreover, its dazzling color was the exact opposite of the maid dress.

“Good work, everyone!”

“Well done!”

“The simple design lets you appreciate the raw material.”

“Renge, you can keep it. It looks ten times better on you.”

“You’re a great senior—I’ll treat you tonight.”

“Now you’re ready to go, Renge! Enjoy yourself!”

Wh-What? U-Um, I-I’m struggling to keep up with the conversation... Am I really supposed to go like this? I feel more comfortable in my usual clothes. Th-This feels a bit embarrassing...

“What is this ruckus?” Ms. Ran, the mansion’s owner, had entered the room.

At once, the noise stopped and everyone straightened up their backs.

“U-Um... They all helped me choose my outfit for tonight...”

Though still confused, I stepped forward to prevent my seniors—who had helped me a lot—from getting scolded, but Ms. Ran raised her hand to stop me.

“You don’t need to say anything. I know what’s going on.”

Ms. Ran walked behind my back while she talked in the same unemotional voice she used when reprimanding Lord Itsuki. I tried looking over my shoulder, but she ordered me to stand still. Wh-What’s happening? We shouldn’t have been so noisy, but her anger seemed out of proportion.

While I was feeling nervous, something gently touched my hair and the nape of my neck. In front of me, I could see some of my seniors smiling. A soothing metallic sound rang from my chest area. Looking down, I saw a silver chain with an amethyst swaying back and forth.

“Wear this necklace tonight.”

That short sentence from Ms. Ran sent shivers down my spine. I realized what she had put around my neck and why she had done it. I-I’m humbled!

“I-I can’t use something so expensive just to dress up...!”

“You need to pay more attention to your appearance. As a maid in charge of entertaining guests, you should constantly work on your charm. That’s a basic rule for us maids. I have to make sure that everyone lodging at my house is aware of that.”

Ms. Ran put her hands on my shoulders. With a gentle, encouraging push, she made me puff out my chest. This posture lifted up my jaw and, in turn, my face.

I heard Ms. Azami let out a shriek of joy. “As expected from Ms. Ran! She’s the ideal head of the maids!”

“Wow, it perfectly matches the outfit’s color! It’s as if the amethyst were tailor-made!”

“It highlights Renge’s biggest selling point—her chest.”

“You’re right. It attracts one’s gaze. Renge, you’re the strongest you’ve ever been!”

“N-Not at all... You say that, b-but...” I tried to argue.

“It’s just a casual dinner with your work colleagues—there’s nothing to worry about. For someone like you, who’s not used to social interaction, it’s a good opportunity to gain some experience.”

Ms. Azami vigorously nodded along to Ms. Ran’s words.

I felt exhausted before I even set foot in the restaurant. Once I walked in, Ash quickly showed me to my seat. He’s so gentle.

Today’s celebration included Reina and Hermes, the heads of the Territory Reform Promotion Office’s laboratory; Glen, who served as a soldier under Sir George; and, of course, Lady Maika and Ash. Thinking about it, excluding me, they were all former classmates from the military academy. It made me realize that the academy was in fact a place to form personal relationships like these. Compared to them, I just hadn’t been able to make any connections at all during my time at the academy.

As expected from graduates of the greatest class in the history of the academy, everyone was engaging in sophisticated conversations. While Hermes and Ash were passionately discussing the laboratory’s future direction, Lady Maika and Glen were talking together about sword fighting with a sharp look in their eyes. As for me, I was talking with Reina about our work relationship. I imagined she was just being nice to me.

“Renge, you really saved me by arranging that cash so quickly!”

“N-Not at all. That’s just part of my job. I-I’m used to that much.”

“But didn’t you do it while working on the report with Ash? I’m sorry for giving you more work, even though you were already so busy. I’ll make sure that won’t happen again.”

“N-No, really, that’s okay!”

“It’s not okay! In the first place, that was only necessary because one of our members secretly carried out unplanned experiments. He was even so impudent as to take money from a different experiment’s funds! That led to a huge deficit, because I didn’t have the right numbers to calculate the budget! And as a result, we have to do more work. I can’t let him get away with that.”

Reina gulped down her ale and slammed the mug on the table. Hermes interrupted his conversation with Ash to pour her another drink.

“If only he had told me, I could have avoided that calculation error... Or rather, if he had stuck to the plan, there wouldn’t have been any budget deficit. Anyway, you shouldn’t be so lenient, Renge! You know how much trouble it was to come up with that plan, right? Our lab’s full of idiots!”

Should I just agree with her? I took a fleeting glimpse at Hermes—probably the instigator of this whole incident. His look almost urged me to nod along.

“Y-Yeah, you’re right.”

“Right?! I knew you’d understand!”

As I hesitatingly agreed, Reina firmly grasped my hands, and Hermes swiftly came over to my side to pour me another drink. Wh-What was that reaction? No one has treated me this nice besides my family and my childhood friend...

While I sat in bewilderment, Hermes had poured ale into my mug. Maybe a little too much, in fact.

Then, he quietly apologized. “Please excuse her. Our laboratory is full of men, so she has built up some pent-up stress. Of course, it’s also my fault for making a blunder. Yeah, I’m really sorry about that.”

Ah, I see. Reina was a very level-headed person, but even so, it must have taken a lot of effort to be in an all-male environment. I probably wouldn’t have lasted a day there...

As I finally understood the situation, Ash joined the conversation to vehemently agree with Reina. “She is right, Hermes! If you are going to do something like that, you have to make sure no one finds out. You should have asked me for advice. So, when is your next secret plan?”

“Ash! No wonder Hermes gets carried away with a supervisor like you!” Reina yelled out of exasperation in response to Ash’s hopeless schemes.

Ash stayed composed, but Hermes started panicking. I couldn’t help but let out a laugh. Even though they all gave special treatment to Ash, they were still good friends. Having the opportunity to engage in such a lively conversation was really amazing for someone like me.

As things finally calmed down, I overheard Lady Maika and Glen’s conversation.

“Nice. So the military’s packaged lunches have been successfully freed from the shackles of the stockpiled rations,” Glen said.

It appeared that they were talking about the proposal to revise the military’s packaged meals.

Probably hearing their conversation, Reina asked Ash what they were referring to. She looked like a student in the middle of class when asking.

“I see. So that’s why we were developing preserved foods at the laboratory,” she said.

“Yes, precisely. I had hoped that the timing would be right.”

This once again showed how amazing Ash truly was. He had planned to combine the replacement of the military’s packaged meals with the promotion office’s development of canned foods and press forward both issues at once. Unfortunately, he was deeply disappointed that the canned foods had been a failure.

Meanwhile, Hermes only understood what Ash was talking about after Reina explained it to him.

“So, in other words, Ash conspired to force through two troublesome projects at once. How shrewd,” he remarked.

“That almost makes it sound like an evil scheme,” Reina protested.

“Isn’t it?”

I-It didn’t sound like an e-evil scheme to me. He was just laying the groundwork to move his plans forward at a decent pace.

Ash also objected to that characterization, but Hermes and Reina didn’t pay any attention to it as they laughed at each other.

As I watched them enjoying themselves, Reina leaned in to let me in on the fun. “Why do you think Ash managed to object so smoothly?”

“Because he is such an eloquent speaker?”

“That’s half correct,” she continued whispering. “Since he also thinks of it as an evil scheme, he’s got the counterargument all figured out.”

That made sense. I felt a bit bad admitting it, but it sounded convincing to me... No, it can’t be. Ash wouldn’t have come up with an evil scheme. It must have been purely to advance things as smoothly as possible. It must have been that... right? A-After all, he was saying how we should support Ajole and Sekuba village, who suffered from recurring bad harvests. I couldn’t forget his expression when he had said that he wished he had a bottomless pocket filled with unlimited food.

As I was lost in thought, I suddenly came to a realization. Food. Pocket. Packaged meals. Ajole village. Support. Everything seamlessly clicked together in my mind. I wondered if it was possible. It was a simple idea by an underling maid who didn’t have the slightest idea of the region’s governing processes. How could I meddle with government affairs if I couldn’t even get along with my childhood friend?

A distant voice echoed in my head: it’s easier to just give up. If I held my tongue and cast my eyes downward, no one was even going to notice that I had thought something stupid. And yet... Before I could give up, I timidly raised my head and looked at Ash. It was quite strange how Ash almost always smiled back at me when I looked at him in the hopes of getting noticed.

“Um... Regarding the stockpiles...”

My suggestions weren’t really worth much, but if only Ash agreed... I had to try. I got ready to entrust Ash with the cold, heavy burden lying in the depths of my mind.

“There are some leftovers that the military won’t use, right?” I asked.

“I am not sure if you can call them leftovers, but... Well, whatever is not consumed is kept for emergencies.”

“A-As I thought. I know that’s the correct use, since they are emergency rations, but...”

My voice trembled as the others started looking at me too. Wh-What should I do? I should have just consulted Ash later. Or rather, brought it up as part of some small talk... But there was no way that I could have naturally pulled off a conversation like that.

“C-Couldn’t we repurpose it as aid for the areas suffering from bad harvests?”

“Hm? I mean...”

Ash showed a negative reaction. As expected, the idea of someone like me was no good. I shouldn’t have said anything. Yet at the same time, I thought about pushing it a little further. Ash seemed to be taking my suggestion seriously.

“I realize that a lot of the rations are spoiled and dangerous to consume, but there should also be some that are fine, right?”

“Yes, of course. Otherwise, we would not be able to use them for the military either. I see.”

The warmth carried by Ash’s words had changed. He had started to refine my proposal in the flames of his mind to see whether it was possible and appropriate.

“Considering that we will stop using those rations, we could work out a way to redirect them to the areas affected by bad harvests. Sorting out all the items from the stockpiles can be a bit nerve-wracking, but that also applies to choosing the packaged meals for military expeditions. The only reason why it has not been done until now is because of the proposals from former higher-ups, so it is not like there is any written law against it. Since the stockpiles are reserved for the city, we need to fulfill certain requirements to take them outside. However, if we gather enough people to sort through the stockpiles and establish a protocol for food selection as well as preparation, we can minimize the risks of food poisoning, which our predecessors sought to avoid.” And finally, the furnace of his mind produced the following sentence: “Maybe our pockets are bigger than I thought.” They may not have been magical, but they weren’t so bad after all.

Y-Yay! Now that Ash had approved of my idea, it seemed highly feasible.

After a pause, he added, “Or rather, you managed to expand our pocket, Renge. Let me express my gratitude.”

“N-Not at all! It’s only because of your and Sir George’s troops’ proposal.”

I’d just thought that maybe I could do something for the village where my childhood friend lived when I’d heard about that plan.

Although I quickly shook my head, Ash only seemed to be half-listening. He went on to equally distribute credit. “Then let us say it is everyone’s achievement. Great! We keep improving and accomplishing more wonderful things.”

As I looked towards Glen, a member of Sir George’s troops, he waved his hands as if to say “I don’t think I’ve really done anything.”

Still, Ash continued to fire up his thinking process. “Come to think of it, we need to prepare an expedition to test the practical use of the new packaged meals... How about we test the military’s new meals while transporting the stockpiled supplies to the areas suffering from a bad harvest?”

I was not sure how to answer that. Although of course I realized that he wasn’t really talking to me.

“I could be killing two birds with one stone! And we would be able to observe the agricultural practices of the areas affected by crop failure! This might even be a shot at three birds! We definitely have to do this!”

“His switch has been activated.”

Lady Maika’s murmur was all that needed to be said. It felt as if someone had pulled the trigger on a ballista—there was no coming back from this much conviction.

“The Territory Reform Promotion Office will be in charge of writing up a proposal for the use of stockpiled rations as recovery support. Can you please take care of that, Renge?”

And apparently, I was also in the line of fire of the ballista. Although that was to be expected—I was the idea’s proposer.

“Glen! Sir George’s troops will be in charge of the expedition plan. The purpose is the maintenance of public order within the territory. Particularly, to ease the concerns regarding the areas affected by bad harvests. Please start planning among the troops!”

“O-Okay... What area are we talking about?”

“I will let you know tomorrow, once I get to the promotion office.”

I also overheard Reina and Hermes telling each other to prepare themselves just in case.

“Ha ha ha, it looks like this summer will get quite hot again.”

The image of Ash cheerfully bursting into laughter right next to Lady Maika, who seemed to equally enjoy herself, burnt itself into my memory.

Several days later, and thanks to the support of the civil branch—represented by the Territory Reform Promotion Office—and the military branch—represented by Sir George’s troops—the expedition was approved. The main objectives of the expedition were to test the new packaged meals, maintain public order, analyze the agricultural techniques of the areas affected by disasters and crop failure, and distribute food to them. The project was called “Expedition for Testing Packaged Meals, Maintaining Public Order, Analyzing Agricultural Techniques, and Distributing Food.” Yes, that’s right. Just by the title, you could not discern the main objective. If I dare say so myself, it’s quite impressive that I managed to get this approved.

There was no doubt the proposal would have never passed if I had just submitted the whole thing upfront. How did I get its approval, then? Rest assured—I did not use any unscrupulous methods that would have violated the public order, such as bribing the lord. I had simply made sure to present the information in the right order.

More specifically, it had started with Sir George’s troops submitting a request for an expedition to test the new packaged meals. Once their request had been approved, the Territory Reform Promotion Office had jumped in to suggest using that expedition as an opportunity to inspect the areas affected by disasters and crop failure. Finally, once that proposal had passed, we had brought up the idea of distributing the leftover stockpiles from the warehouse to the people in need.

This procedure took advantage of human psychology, since it is harder for someone to reject additional requests once the initial proposal is approved. As a result, the first and the final drafts of the project were as different as heaven and earth, but I had somehow managed to get my way just through momentum alone.

Half of the expedition party consisted of soldiers from Sir George’s company, and the other half of soldiers from troops that had already been in charge of patrolling those areas. Since Sir George’s troops did not usually leave the city, they needed a guide. Besides, it was an opportunity to hear the other experienced soldiers’ opinions on the new packaged meals.

Lady Maika was also accompanying us as a representative of the promotion office—partly because she was the supervisor, but also because her agricultural knowledge and farming experience were invaluable when inspecting the affected areas’ agricultural practices. She was the only person in the office capable of analyzing the fields the same way I could. The person who rejoiced the most at Lady Maika’s decision to come along was without a doubt Glen. Every morning and evening without fail, you could see Glen rushing towards Lady Maika with a smile on his face during their training on the campground.

“Maika, are you up for a duel once we’ve finished warming up?”

“Sure! Best of three?”

They were both worthy rivals to each other. Looking at them, I noticed how Glen’s romantic feelings for Lady Maika had seemingly dwindled. It was not as if they had completely disappeared, but now their relationship appeared to be purely platonic. Maybe something I did not know of had happened between the two.

Graduating from the military academy was a turning point in the lives of children from respectable families. Many girls chose to get engaged or get married to their fiancés once they graduated. While Glen’s romantic feelings may have been unrequited, they had blossomed into a genuine friendship. I felt a bit bad for him, but seeing what a cheerful and good-natured person Glen was, I was sure that he was going to find the right person sooner rather than later.

In a situation like this, you were supposed to pray to the monkey god in this world. He was not only the god of wisdom but also the god of harmony. Meanwhile, the wolf god was the way to go if you wanted to pray for your precious children. Although, if what you wanted was to protect your family, then the dragon god—the god of war—may have also been a good choice. In short, you could not go wrong as long as you prayed to one of the great gods. Personally, I chose to pray to the familiar Goddess Yuika, who represented all lovey-dovey married couples. And my prayers tended to work quite well. You just had to look at how much Mother Yae had managed to corner Sir George. At this point, it was only a matter of time before they would get married.

Our expedition moved forward smoothly as scheduled. We had arrived at Adele village, our third destination. It was Lady Renge’s hometown, a village that had suffered from damage by wild animals last year. Compared to the previous two locations we had visited—a village struck by water damage and one suffering from crop failure—the place was rather lively. On paper, they were still recovering from the damages, but everyone was so cheerful that it seemed like everything was back to business as usual.

“Welcome, everyone! As the representative of Adele, it is my pleasure to welcome you to our humble village!”

Our expedition party was greeted by a kind-looking village chief. Lady Maika, who held the highest status among the party members, stepped forward and put on a bright and elegant smile before switching to work mode.

“Thank you for your warm welcome. We are sorry to disturb you during such a busy time. My name is Maika Amanobe. I am the head of the Territory Reform Promotion Office.”

After hearing her name, the village chief gave a genuine, kind smile. “We have heard rumors about you for quite a while now. It is all thanks to your Territory Reform Promotion Office’s proposal that we are able to prosper like this again. I would like to express our deepest gratitude for the tax exemption in light of our financial recovery.”

“It is all the fruit of your labor. His Excellency the count is aware of Adele’s large contributions towards the territory over the years.”

“Thank you once again. We are humbled by your kind words.”

Lady Maika then followed the village chief to his house to discuss the details of our visit. Apart from Glen, who accompanied her as an attendant, everyone else was led to the expedition party’s accommodations. The people from Adele village must have been extremely happy about the tax exemption considering how kindly they treated us. They had cleaned and prepared vacant houses as our lodgings. What a relief! Otherwise, we would have had to either set up camp at the outskirts of the village or propose to stay overnight with families that had space in their houses.

However, the vacant houses were not all good news. They were proof that, even though it appeared like nothing had happened, some people must have lost their lives to the wild animal attack. Vacant houses in farming villages were traces of the people who had left this world.

I put down my luggage in one of the houses and immediately headed out to inspect the fields. At first glance, I noticed that the fields were well maintained. Although there were some differences between the plots, there seemed to be a unified approach to agriculture.

“These are great fields. They are attempting to save labor by dividing up the work and prioritizing what is now possible in their current situation. They aimed for the best possible outcome rather than perfection.”

Leaving so many idle plots must have been a deliberate choice to focus the diminished manpower. It appeared they were also limiting themselves to only growing the main crops. As a result, they could manage everything thoroughly.

“Ash, you’re early as always.”

As I was inspecting the fields, Lady Maika had returned from the village chief’s house. Seeing how she was now speaking more casually, it appeared like the work-related discussion was over.

“These are some nice fields! Um... I mean, what is your opinion, Ash?”

“They are enlightening. They devised a way to save labor while also keeping up their harvest yield. It is a great reference if we ever have to deal with the consequences of a disaster.”

Inspecting actual locations was often informative because you sometimes stumbled upon approaches like these, which originated from experience rather than instruction manuals.

“You know what you are talking about. Are you familiar with farming practices?” asked the village chief, who had just arrived behind Lady Maika.

However, before I could say anything, Lady Maika proudly answered in my place. “Yes, he is. Ash is the head of planning at the Territory Reform Promotion Office. He is like a great sage who knows everything from agriculture to manufacturing work!”

Since she had raised the bar quite a bit, I tried walking under it. “That is a bit of an overstatement. I am just used to the fieldwork because I am the son of a farmer.”

“Oh, so you are Ash!” The village chief suddenly drew closer and grasped both my hands with a big smile on his face. “Chief Maika told me that it was your idea to request a tax exemption. Thanks to your support we were able to return back to normal with minimal casualties, as you can see. And she also mentioned that this patrol was your idea too!”

“Well, I only came up with the idea for an expedition after listening to everyone else’s opinions, so the others deserve credit too.”

He seemed to hold me in very high esteem. That went to show how effective the promotion office’s measures had been. I thought about thanking Lord Arthur as well, who had had to leave the city due to family affairs. I was sure she was going to rejoice.

After praising me so highly for a while, the village chief’s smiling face was suddenly overcome with embarrassment. “Besides, I’ve heard that you are looking after my daughter. Please let me express my gratitude as a father.”

“Oh, you mean Renge?”

“Yes. I’m sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Marco. I am Renge’s father and Adele’s village chief.”

As I had thought. Their eyes looked the same and they had a similar vibe. Moreover, normally only the sons and daughters of nobles and village chiefs were allowed to study at the military academy. I could vouch for that as the exception to the rule.

“It is I who should be expressing my gratitude. I am very much obliged to Renge.”

“You are exaggerating. Is she of any help at work?” Renge’s father seemed extremely curious about his daughter, who lived far apart.

“Of course! She is truly outstanding and always helps us out. I can entrust her with any work, since she is so serious and tenacious. Renge also played an active role in putting together this inspection and distribution project,” I openly gave my opinion.

Renge was such a laborious type; you could count on her to silently get the job done if you provided her with the reference data and methodology. She diligently took care of the tasks that I considered to be a bother, so I was quite happy and relieved to have her on my team.

As I gave my review of Renge to Chief Marco, he smiled while nodding along. “My daughter was picked up by a wonderful department. I cannot thank you enough.”

“The feeling is mutual. I am thankful that someone as brilliant as Renge chose to join us.”

“Not at all. I am sure it is you and Chief Maika who are contributing to my daughter’s success.” A good worker like her would have been in demand no matter the department, but Chief Marco seemed to disagree as a slightly concerned look came over his face. “My daughter is a little shy... She wasn’t able to make many friends at the military academy, and in class she didn’t raise her hand much either. As a result, her evaluation wasn’t great.”

“Well, she’s indeed the quieter type,” Lady Maika agreed with Chief Marco.

“Since work isn’t something that you can just do by yourself, I feared that she may end up not getting appreciated at all.”

“That would have been a waste indeed. She is one of our main subordinates, and she is also in Lord Itsuki’s good books.”

“I am immensely pleased to hear that as her father.”

I see. So that was why he acted so friendly towards us—he was a doting father. While he had mentioned that his daughter was not valued by the people around her, he had never once said that she was not talented. No wonder why Renge had turned into such a serious and honest person, being raised with so much love.

“By the way, Ash. When I spoke earlier with the village chief,” Lady Maika switched back into work mode and started giving her report, “he asked if it was possible to redirect the stockpiles reserved for Adele to Ajole village.”

“Hm. Well, I do not mind, but...”

I took a look at Chief Marco’s expression. He must have been refraining because he was aware of the stockpiles’ reputation, probably after experiencing their taste himself at a camping trip during his time at the academy.

“The food stockpiles we brought are of good quality. I believe they would come in handy,” I said.

“I appreciate the gesture. It is true that it would be helpful to have some more food, but... For the time being, we have recovered. However, Ajole village seems to be in a much harsher situation, so I would like you to help them instead if possible.”

Ajole was the last stop of our expedition—a village that had suffered from crop failures for the past twenty years. While Adele was indeed doing poorly compared to its heyday, Ajole had pretty much reached its limits. If asked which one of them needed help more urgently, I would have had to say the latter.

“What is your opinion, Chief Maika?”

“If Adele village agrees, then I see no problem with it. There is no point in forcing the stockpiles on them.”

“You are right.”

While I openly agreed with Lady Maika on the surface, I disagreed on the inside. Looking at it from a risk-return perspective, we should have invested in Adele village. However, the stockpiles were not something we should have imposed on them either.

“I understand your wishes, but... It is a difficult decision to give away everything to Ajole. Is there a particular reason?”

“If the neighboring village falls into ruins, we will also end up suffering the consequences. But that’s not everything...” For instance, some villagers from Ajole may have become thieves out of desperation. But there seemed to be more to his concerns. “Actually, Ajole is a village that branched off from Adele, so you could say we are extended family.”

“Ah, I see. It is located fairly nearby too.”

It was just like Lord Arthur had said a while back. In that case, there must have also been many of their blood relatives among Ajole’s villagers.

“We have been on bad terms for twenty years, but even so, we are strongly tied to each other. I cannot rest easy knowing that they are in distress.”

“I understand.”

Therefore, we could not just force the food on Adele village just purely out of convenience. That would also negatively impact their recently gained favorability towards us. It was a bit unfortunate, but I decided to accept the request, as I did not see any point in strongly objecting.

“I support Chief Maika’s decision. We will take the remaining stockpiled food and distribute all of it to Ajole village.”

In return, I was going to thoroughly inspect Ajole to find out the underlying problems with their fields. I did not want to let our food investment go to waste.

During the rest of our stay in Adele, Chief Marco explained the measures they had implemented, such as the field’s management methods and the distribution of the surplus food that they had retained because of the tax exemption.

Lady Maika and I both came to the conclusion “like father like daughter” in regard to Chief Marco and Lady Renge. While the chief’s methods were quite simple, they produced steady results. It made sense that Lady Renge had turned into such a hard worker with a father like that. Even after all of the village’s efforts had been wasted due to the wild animal attack, Chief Marco did not become disgruntled, nor did he undertake any risky ventures. Instead, he talked things through with the villagers and focused their resources on the weak points to support the whole structure.

This may have seemed an obvious response, but it was no easy feat to muster up the emotional strength necessary to carry it all out in a weakened state. Not everyone readily approved of plain work like this, so there must have been some backlash at first. Humans preferred to work shorter hours and tended to be drawn to the flashiest methods.

After hearing his extremely useful explanation, I decided to document Adele as a successful example of how to properly respond to a disaster. If we stored that information in the administrative hall’s records and the temple’s library, it may someday help someone else in a crisis. Maybe we could even set up a section dedicated to measures for emergency situations, like a first-aid kit of knowledge that you could seek out in times of need. Hopefully, the accumulated knowledge was going to be a powerful weapon against all future enemies.

One day after leaving Adele, we arrived in Ajole. No one spoke a word. Considering that we had arrived at the final destination of our expedition, you would have expected some chatter about how tired we were or someone saying they were looking forward to a break, but instead, everyone held their tongue and fell silent. The gloomy atmosphere surrounding the village made everyone’s words get stuck in their throats.

“This is worse than expected.”

Trying to ignore that mood, I raised my voice as usual. Upholding the team’s morale was just as important as taking responsibility for a commanding officer.

As I carried out my task as adjutant of Sir George, Lady Maika also performed her duty as the department chief. “You are right. I guess it was the right call to bring the food from Adele village.”

“Looks like it. That was a lucky call.”

The ruined fields caught my attention. While Adele village had carried out the necessary maintenance, many plots were just neglected here in Ajole village. Half of the fields were just growing wild. No wonder why their yield had dramatically decreased with such little cultivated land.

Most crops in this world were of excellent quality, possibly due to selective breeding back in the times of the ancient civilization. Nevertheless, they could only live up to their full potential if planted in properly maintained fields. Judging from these fields, this village’s soil had already reached its limits.

“Let us hurry. It looks like they will need the food as soon as possible.”

Fearfully, I took a look inside the village. Considering that I had withheld support for this place, it would not have surprised me if someone had grown horns and were about to pounce at us at any moment.

To my surprise, however, we were greeted by a little girl right after entering the village. Due to how thin she was, she looked quite young, but she must have been the same age as us. Her sitting posture was all that remained of her good upbringing, which made me guess she must have been related to the village chief. Excluding that, her plain dress and disheveled appearance were those of a poor villager.

“Are you...the people who sent a message...about coming to check on us? Is that you?”

Before I was able to respond to her question, Lady Maika made eye contact with me to confirm that this girl was undoubtedly representing the village chief. Then, she put on a smile and stepped forward.

“Yes. My name is Maika Amanobe. I am in charge of the expedition party patrolling the area, inspecting, and distributing food. Listening to the requests of each village is part of our mission, so if there is anything you need, please let me know.”

“Ah, that’s good to hear...” The girl let out a sigh of relief and gave us a worn-out smile. “So it’s the expedition party patrolling, inspecting, and...?”

Just when I had thought that she was smiling, an uneasy expression came over her face again. The expedition had quite a long title to remember it right away. Lady Maika seemed to realize this as well, and tried to soothe the girl by adopting a friendlier smile.

“It’s a long title. You can just call it ‘expedition party.’”

“I-I’m sorry... I’m not used to this kind of thing at all...”

“Don’t worry, everyone here agrees that we need an abbreviation for this long title. We even discussed it on the move, but never reached an agreement.”

She was telling the truth—some laughs coming from the expedition party, slightly lifting the heavy mood, were proof of it.

“O-Okay. Um, let me take you to my father then.”

In response to Lady Maika’s consideration, the young girl caught her breath and gave us a clumsy smile as she turned her back to lead the way. However, she immediately turned back again.

“I’m sorry. I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Sui—I mean, I am the daughter of Village Chief Louis. My name is Suiren.”

“Nice to meet you, Suiren.”

“L-Likewise. Chief Louis is not feeling very well, so I’m taking care of most things here. Since I lack experience, I am afraid I may behave disrespectfully, but...”

“Don’t mind us, we are the ones intruding after all. You can take it easy,” Lady Maika reassured her.

It appeared—or rather, as her childhood friend I was sure—that Lady Maika did not mind Lady Suiren’s blunders. It would have been different if she had shown disdain for the expedition party, but Lady Maika was not so petty as to get offended at someone’s nervous blunders.

Nonetheless, from Lady Suiren’s point of view, Lady Maika was the commander of a joint military and civil expedition party that had been entrusted with a complicated mission. Contrary to her young appearance, Lady Maika gave off the impression of—and was in fact—an important figure. It was only natural that Lady Suiren’s skinny body froze stiff in fear at their first meeting.

“N-No, I need to stick to...” the girl began.

Noticing that Lady Suiren was still nervous, Lady Maika thought for a bit before starting to talk in a completely informal manner.

“You know, I’m from a farm village too. Don’t worry about manners; I don’t usually talk like that either.”

Hearing the expedition party leader’s casual response, Lady Suiren blinked repeatedly. After a pause, she then let out the third and biggest sigh of relief.

“I’m glad to hear that. I’m embarrassed to say this, but I haven’t been able to attend the military academy, so I don’t really know how to conduct myself in situations like this...”

I nodded along. Looking at the state of things in this village, no one would have blamed her. In order to join the academy, you not only needed to be of a certain age and social standing, but you also needed the funds to pay for your stay in the city. There were no tuition fees for the academy, and accommodation was free as well, but there was a fixed fee to cover food expenses and equipment costs. Of course, you also needed some money to buy personal stuff and pay for other daily expenses not covered by the academy.

For a family of farmers, raising those funds would have been pretty much impossible. Even Lady Maika and I had used the village funds. Ajole village must not have been able to raise enough money to pay for Lady Suiren’s study expenses. This world’s upper class would have considered this a lack of essential education. No wonder Lady Suiren felt so nervous.

“That’s fine. It’s not like we’re here for a formal dinner party. We just want information about your village, so just speak however you feel comfortable. That way it’s easier for us too.”

“I see. I feel a bit relieved. Anyway, let me take you to my dad, the village chief.”

“Yes, please. By the way, has it already been decided where our party is supposed to stay? If so, I’d like everyone to drop their luggage there while I go greet the village chief.”

“Oh, I forgot! Yes, that has been arranged. There are several empty houses near the village chief’s house—you can stay there. However, they haven’t really been cleaned or looked after...”

“Don’t worry, that’s fine! Much more comfortable than sleeping outside, right everyone?”

The whole expedition party agreed in unison to Lady Maika’s question. It appeared that the hastily organized party had solidified its unity over the course of the journey. I could only call it a result of Lady Maika’s gift to win people over.

As Lady Suiren once again walked off to lead the way, Lady Maika quietly moved next to me. “Do you think that was okay? Was I not too informal? I just thought that it would be difficult to carry out our investigations if our host is too nervous.”

“I think you did great. She was indeed a bit too nervous.” I probably would have made the same judgment if I had been in charge of negotiations. “However, I am a bit worried that if you get too close to her, you may end up getting involved too deeply with this village.”

No matter how you looked at it, reviving this village required a huge amount of labor. I was not sure if the Sacula region was currently up to that task. While there were resources available, there were many other villages that wanted their share. It would have been much harder to make a coldhearted judgment call with the poor girl’s face on her mind.

“Yeah, you’re right... I’ll try my best to not get too attached.”

My face looked just as uneasy as Lady Maika’s as I shrugged my shoulders. I mean, I’m not sure I can properly detach myself either... Even now, I was aching with feelings of guilt towards Ajole village, which had no signs of life compared to Adele. Until now, I had some serious doubts, but it seemed that I was human after all. That was indeed partly unexpected. Although my blood had always been red.

Suiren’s Perspective

According to the messenger, people were going to visit from the city. Some sort of expedition party. Today I was standing stock still at the village’s entrance, waiting for that party thing. Looking over the place where I had been born and raised, it wasn’t pretty by any standard, but it was really quiet. While the sun stood high up in the sky, even the grass seemed to be sleeping, and it felt as if it were the middle of the night.

“I wonder when they’ll be here.”

They were nowhere to be seen. I felt disoriented. It must’ve been because I’d been exposed to this silence all by myself. It was as if I were inside a dream—everything felt vague. Even my clenched fist seemed to dissolve and disappear with just a light breeze. The occasional stares that I felt on my back must have come from the villagers inside their houses. The battered houses coupled with the deserted streets made the villagers appear like corpses peeking out from beyond the grave.

This is no good. I shouldn’t think about scary stuff. There had been too many funerals these past two years. I closed my eyes to forget my eerie vision of the village.

“Everything will be fine. They will help us.”

According to my dad, the people I was waiting for were going to rescue us out of this crisis. I wasn’t sure if it was all right for me to welcome these people all by myself—they were our only option after all. Seeing how the crop failures continued and my dad was ill... That was what my dad had said at least—this was our only option left. And he was right. Since Adele village had stopped helping us, this village had been hopelessly lost.

For the first time in a while, I remembered the face of my childhood friend. It was the image of her crying on the day we had fought and split up. I felt a burning sensation running through my eyes and nose, as if someone had stuck a sharp needle through my foggy brain.

This is no good. I shouldn’t be looking back on such painful memories. I shut my eyes and pushed the memory back into the dark void. However, the burning pain in my nose and eyes did not go away immediately.

For a moment, it felt like my brain fog was clearing up, but it was no use. Random thoughts kept popping into my head. Scary ones, painful ones, sad ones, distressing ones. All the thoughts that I had been ignoring came to the surface at once. The pain from today’s empty stomach. The fear of next winter. The horror of my starving neighbors. The shame of being a country bumpkin who was about to meet people from the city.

My heart was beating fast, as if it wanted to alert me of an incoming danger. No matter how many deep breaths I took, the pain inside my chest did not subside. A cold sweat was running down my back. When? When had my chest started to hurt? Just now? Or had I just ignored it until now, and it had really been there ever since my dad had told me to take care of things today?

I felt sick. Or rather, I had felt sick this whole time. I can’t do this. A voice spoke to me from the depths of my mind. I wanted to run away. Yeah, I should run. As my eyes wandered about to find an escape route, I saw a group approaching from the direction of Adele village. It’s them. I had to run away from them—the source of my uneasiness. I mean, I don’t know what to do. No one had taught me how to conduct myself in a situation like this. I hadn’t been to the academy and my dad hadn’t taught me anything either. So, I had to—

For some reason, the crying face of my childhood friend appeared out of the darkness. She grabbed my sleeves and told me to stay. Why did you come to my mind at a time like this? Tell me, Renge. Why did I think of you now, when I was on the verge of tears from all the pain, even though you were no longer supposed to be a pleasant memory?

I shut my eyes tight and pushed back all my negative thoughts—including my desire to run away—back into the dark void. I knew that running away wasn’t going to solve anything. That was why I had to ask those people for help. I stood up and raised my face. My mind had become blank. I was scared, anxious, embarrassed, and my legs were shaking. I felt like running in the opposite direction at any moment.

As I tried my best not to run away, the people from the city arrived in front of me. They were led by a boy and a girl who looked younger yet more mature than me. I ignored my thoughts telling me someone like me couldn’t do this. The cold pain emanating from my heart and spreading through my whole body was so bad that it felt like I was going to collapse. My desire to run away grew even stronger.

My thoughts were spilling from my head like water from a broken pot, and I no longer knew what I was supposed to do. Even so, my parched mouth started moving.

“Are you...the people who sent a message...about coming to check on us? Is that you?”

I managed to speak! I realized that was no big achievement, but I was proud of it nonetheless. Slowly, I returned to my senses. The broken pot that was my head was being repaired with clay. It almost seemed as if my childhood friend were smiling a little inside the darkness.

●　●　●

It was no surprise, but there was an extraordinarily large number of vacant houses in Ajole village. The expedition party’s members only rejoiced for a brief moment at the opportunity to stretch out and relax inside a house. They asked themselves whether this village was doing okay with a worried look on their faces. Of course it was not doing okay.

I assigned the accommodation to the soldiers who were aware of the village’s situation and instructed them all to gather after dropping off their luggage. With Lady Maika gone, I was the next in command. Besides, I was the highest-ranking officer present as the adjutant of Sir George, whose troops made up the majority of this party. Accordingly, everyone followed my orders.

The willingness of those young lads and middle-aged men to obey the commands of a child like me reflected the proficiency of Sacula’s military. It was a testament to the academy’s excellent teaching methods, which prepared you to receive orders properly. Since most superior officers had also been trained at the academy and adhered to the proper code of conduct, it was easy for the troops to adapt to a new officer.

“All right, everyone! Let us arrange the stockpiled food we brought for distribution. Looking at the situation here, they will need it sooner rather than later.” Everyone present concurred. “Also, please make sure that there is always someone guarding the food,” I ordered in a loud voice, so that it could be heard by the villagers observing us from the shadows. “Of course, we came here to hand out the food, so it would not really matter if someone just took it, but...”

That was a lie. It would have been a huge problem if someone just took the food without permission. Undoubtedly, that would lead to an uproar among the villagers, decrying the injustice of someone taking more than their fair share. Providing it would stop at verbal complaints, that would still be manageable, but given the village’s famine situation, it was likely to quickly escalate to violence. And it would have been my job to suppress that uproar. I preferred to avoid a messy event like that altogether.

“It would not really matter, but there are probably some items which have spoiled even further during transportation. Moreover, many of the products have to be properly heated before consumption, so we will cook them and then distribute them. Please inform all the villagers that they will have to wait for their turn as we distribute the food equally.”

Above anything else, overconsumption was a potential problem if the villagers were left to their own devices. Compared to other mammals, human digestion and absorption are superior, but that also means that they are not very fuel-efficient. If they did not consume the food according to a properly managed schedule, bringing all this food from afar would become pointless.

“You all know what to do. Please start working.”

The rest was easy, since all the veteran soldiers were going to take care of the finer details. Sir George’s troops were already familiar with the stockpiles’ contents, so they were in charge of organizing them. The troops who regularly patrolled this area and had met the villagers before were primarily in charge of guarding the food. Without any word from me, they lined up the food in order of expiry date and asked the villagers who were hiding from view to wait their turn. What outstanding soldiers!

As I considered including a performance evaluation in the expedition report, Lady Maika came back from her visit to the village chief, accompanied by Lady Suiren.

“Back already?”

“Yes, the village chief was not feeling well at all... And you’re also pretty fast at setting things up.”

“It seemed better to start the food distribution as soon as possible. May I ask how many people currently live in this village?”

When I looked towards Lady Suiren, she let out a shriek and became flustered.

“Don’t pressure her like that!” Lady Maika scolded me.

Am I pressuring her?

“You’re too fast. You can’t just suddenly ambush someone inexperienced with a task! Didn’t I tell you the same thing with Renge?”

“You did indeed.” That wasn’t meant as a joke? Besides, look at how well the expedition party is holding up!

“Keep that in mind! The expedition party is an exception; they have been trained to adapt after spending so much time with you.”

“But they were all quite talented from the start, right?”

“That’s true. I’m surprised at how well they have learned to keep up with you in such a short time.” Lady Maika sighed as if she were talking to a dense, younger peer.

At the same time, a soldier from the unit that usually patrolled this area joined in the conversation with a proud smile. “’Cause Sir George’s troops taught us quite a bit. Joining different units together is usually a recipe for quarrels, but this time it was actually helpful. Ha ha ha!” The middle-aged man sauntered off while laughing.

Lady Maika sent me a stare that said “You see what I mean?” For some reason, it felt like I was the bad guy here. Must be my imagination.

“More importantly, how many people live in the village? We need to calculate how many days the supply will last and then we can start giving out the food tonight. And if we knew what your food storage looks like, we could also take that into consideration when making plans.”

“Huh? What? U-Um... Maika, what should I say?” Lady Suiren muttered.

“Of course, if you intend to make a distribution plan yourselves, we will leave it to you. However, in that case, I will need to give you some explanations. You need to be careful regarding the state of some of these food items,” I continued.

“Wait a moment! Maika?! Maikaaa?!”

“Ah, it’s too late. Once he starts, nothing can stop him. My bad for not noticing before it was too late.”

It ended up taking quite some time to get the necessary information from Lady Suiren. In the end, we reached the conclusion that Ajole village did not have the resources or leeway to plan and implement the food distribution, so it became the expeditionary party’s task.

However, given the nature of the stockpiled food, the only real meal option was a stew. Either way, we just heated it up, stirred it, and concealed the flavor by diluting it with water and tossing in herbs. That was all—not very difficult. The more complicated task was to calculate the optimal ration size, so that the food would last until the next harvest. The only person capable of doing such an advanced calculation was the village chief, who lay ill in bed.

Lady Suiren apologetically lowered her head. “I am really sorry to make you do all these things.”

“You do not need to apologize. Can you show me the village’s food storage? Inspecting your stock is also one of our objectives this time around. It will help me make plans for the food distribution.”

Since that task was a bit too much for just one person, I asked Lady Maika and several people from Sir George’s troops—including Glen—to come along. It was a good opportunity for Glen, who was currently training to improve his intellectual capabilities, to gather some experience. Moreover, my instructions for Glen could also serve as an explanation for Lady Suiren, who was watching over us.

Since the food storage was a lot emptier than expected, we finished rather quickly, but that was not a good sign. It only further increased my worries for the future.

“For the time being, you are not going to starve to death with the supplies from Adele village.”

“Really?! That’s amazing! You know that just from looking around?”

Lady Suiren’s eyes were sparkling, but this was not actually great news. It merely meant that the villagers were not going to starve to death, but they were still going to be famished. And only so long as the food did not decrease any further and the distribution schedule was respected. All in all, we needed more reserves.

“I did not see any dried meat. Do you not have a hunter here?”

“No, the last one died a few years ago.”

It appeared that there was a lack of successors everywhere. It was a shame considering the village lay right next to a forest. Not only was it a shame, though—it was dangerous as well.

“Does that mean that there are a lot of beasts from the forest laying waste to your fields?”

“Mmh? No. Not that I’ve heard.”

“Come again?”

Cultivated fields were a convenient feeding ground for wild animals. In contrast to the woods, where they had to roam around to find food, here it was all neatly planted in a single place. Not to mention that cultivated vegetables were much tastier than wild-growing food. Once they knew the field’s location, wild beasts were shameless enough to visit daily and bring along their whole family. It was part of a hunter’s job to prevent such a scenario. Hunters killed the beasts before they could approach the village and set up traps on their trails.

Setting aside the hunting and gathering era, in agricultural societies hunters acted as a sort of police officer guarding against wild animals. In my hometown, Noscula, Ban was bearing that heavy responsibility. Therefore, not having any animals approach the village without such a police officer being present was nothing short of a miracle.

“You said that he died a few years ago, right? And there have not been any animal attacks since then?”

“I don’t think so. I’ve never heard of any animals approaching.”

In my experience, miracles did not come about so easily in this world. If there was no hunter at the top of the food chain, the total number of animals must have been growing. Especially in the span of several years. It was too unnatural that none of them had approached a defenseless field.

Come to think of it, Adele and Ajole village were close to each other. Looking at the map, they were practically neighbors, with the forest in between acting as a border, and yet the year before last Adele village had suffered terrible damage from wild animals. I was hesitant to say this, but was it possible that Ajole village was somehow the cause of Adele’s wild animal damage?

Since that was not something that I could ask Lady Suiren, I stealthily asked Lady Maika instead.

“I’m not sure myself, but if you’re saying that as someone who trained as Ban’s apprentice, it sounds quite plausible. I also think it’s weird that no animals are approaching the fields.”

“Yes, it is strange. However, I cannot think of an explanation why they would go to Adele but not Ajole.”

“Maybe because Adele has larger fields?”

It did not seem likely that a wild animal would come up with the idea to aim for the larger field. Although, if we were talking about a fantastical life form such as a demon, I was not sure.

“For now, we should probably go have a look inside the forest tomorrow. What do you think, Chief Maika?”

“All right. However, I won’t allow you to go on your own. You have to take someone with you. Understood?”

I guess I’ll take Glen along, then. I had already taught him some techniques during our camping trip back at the academy, so he somewhat knew how to conduct himself when tagging along.

After a casual briefing, I once again pondered the neighborhood’s state and let out a sigh.

“At any rate, to think that it may be necessary for Ajole to be in a healthy state in order to maintain Adele’s production... Managing a region sure is tough.”

“Oh, I hadn’t thought of it that way, but you’re right.” Lady Maika agreed to my murmur, but seemed annoyed for not noticing herself.

It was not enough to just favorably treat the area with the highest production. Even areas that appeared to have a bad track record could possibly be helping to generate profit in a different way. While it was not confirmed that this was the case this time around, there was no doubt that it would have been advantageous if Adele and Ajole shared the forest management. That way it would be possible for one of them to provide assistance to the other if they were to suffer some misfortune.

“It shows how dangerous it can be to abruptly advance things without carefully considering the issue and carrying out detailed checks. It just ends up in terrible failure.”

“Yeah. But don’t worry—I’ll make sure this won’t happen to you!” Lady Maika clenched her fist and looked as serious as when she crossed swords.

I was aware that I often tackled problems rather quickly, but did it really require that much determination to stop me?

While deciding what should be done during our short stay in Ajole, we promptly started preparing food. We did not ask the villagers for help, so it was just the expedition party cooking. All the villagers were so on edge that if we had allowed anyone to join us, there would have been complaints that they had received more food than others, even if it was merely a sample. For now, we were just going to distribute the food equally today and tomorrow, and hopefully that would calm them down.

Exceptionally, a shy Lady Suiren had asked to help us. Considering her standing, it probably would have been an issue if she had left all the hard work to the people who provided the food aid. I allowed her to join us.

While it was mostly the soldiers’ task to cook, Lady Maika and I also helped. Just because we were the supervisors, that did not mean that we could just lie around on our backs. Especially since we were also preparing the food for the villagers. We swiftly chopped the sun-dried radish and dried meat into thin slices. If you cut the horrible-tasting food into small enough pieces, you could gulp it down in one go until your stomach was filled. That was a lesson we had learned during our tough camping trip.

“Y-You both are amazing at this!” Lady Suiren timidly said as Lady Maika and I were cooking side by side. I wondered what was so amazing. “I mean, you’re both so smart, and you’re good at cooking. Isn’t that amazing? Did you learn that at the academy?”

She was right that our cooking skills had improved. All thanks to the bandit cook’s tough lessons.

“I guess you could say that you somewhat learn how to cook at the academy,” I said.

“Chef Yacoo taught us. He’s also in charge of the kitchen at the count’s mansion.”

“Wow... The academy really is something else...”

Upon hearing this, Glen—who was carrying some ingredients—changed his expression and rushed over to the envious-looking Lady Suiren.

“Wait! You can’t put all the academy graduates on the same level as these two. That wouldn’t be fair to their contemporaries or seniors!”

“Is that so? Wh-Why?”

As Lady Suiren tilted her head in confusion, Glen solemnly nodded and picked out a herb from the ingredients he was carrying.

“I was in the same class as these two, and yet look at this.”

With his chunky hand, Glen put the herb on the chopping board and readied the knife. At that moment, Lady Maika and I both reflexively called him out.

“Glen, that is not how you are supposed to cut the herb.”

“You have to turn it sideways or it won’t taste as nice.”

After freezing for a few seconds, Glen laid down the knife with a solemn expression.

“They stopped me faster than I expected... But you see what I’m getting at, right? It’s true that I’m not the best at cooking, but I’m not the worst either among my colleagues.”

“They are so amazing that they even pay close attention to how they cut the ingredients,” Lady Suiren remarked.

You had to pay close attention, because this one small touch could completely change the taste. As a former disciple of Chef Yacoo, I could not compromise.

“And of course, they are both smart, but even in that regard, they are special.”

“I-Is that so?”

“Yep. You saw how they both taught me earlier at the food storage? It’s amazing how they know right away what to do in a situation like that. I only know how to act after someone teaches me.”

Lady Suiren was clearly impressed as she looked our way.

For some reason, Glen seemed proud when he noticed her reaction. “Even the Church considered our class the best in the history of the military academy. And these two are the reason. From the very beginning, they were at an advanced level. And once they graduated, they were entrusted with a new department—that’s how special they are.”

“Oh, I thought that it was incredible for someone so young to be in charge, but I didn’t realize they were so exceptional. I just assumed that’s what happens when you graduate from the academy.”

“Nope, they are outliers. These two are the only ones. Everyone else—including me—are just apprentices or rookies.”

“Wow, so they really are amazing, huh? What did they do to receive such special treatment?”

“Well, how should I put it... They made quite a mess.”

Lady Maika and I looked at each other as we noticed both of them engaging in a lively conversation. Our eye contact was synchronized. It appeared that Lady Suiren’s nerves had calmed down, so we decided to leave the two alone for the sake of a smooth relationship between Ajole and the expedition party. Lady Maika and I resumed cooking.

Suiren’s Perspective

The people from the expedition party with the long name were nicer than expected, but also scarier. Maika, the girl in charge, was the nice one. She was very considerate towards me, and thanks to her, I was able to show the way to my dad, the village chief. Ash, the boy in charge, was the scary one. It’s not like he was violent or anything, but I didn’t know what to reply when he rapidly fired off his questions...

Either way, and as expected from someone coming from the city and leading soldiers who were older than themselves, both of them were amazing. Although I wasn’t sure what exactly was so incredible.

Glen, one of the party members whom I had befriended, told me about the two.

“Maika is the granddaughter of the count of Sacula.”

I couldn’t believe my ears. My face turned pale. “A-And I spoke so casually with her?!”

“Don’t worry! She’s very lenient in that regard. Like she said herself, she may even prefer to be addressed in a casual way, since she’s from a farm village just like you.” Glen tilted his head. “Although Lord Itsuki can also be quite casual sometimes, so it may be less related to her village upbringing and more to her family roots...”

“R-Really? Are you sure she doesn’t mind?” I instinctively clung to Glen’s arm. I didn’t want to be cut down for causing offense.

“D-Don’t worry. I usually act very familiar around Maika too. Although I obviously call her ‘Chief’ during work, since she is still my supervisor.”

“Are you sure? You promise?” It may have sounded a bit persistent, but I asked repeatedly because I just couldn’t get rid of my concerns. Glen assured me each and every time. “Thank goodness... Come to think of it, Maika did introduce herself as Amanobe when we met!”

Why hadn’t I realized it at that point?! I couldn’t believe I had messed up from the beginning. Not that I would have been able to properly greet her, but I had conducted myself in the worst way possible.

“I’m so mad at myself... Sorry for being such a country bumpkin... Sorry for being so stupid that I don’t even recognize the count’s family name...” As I whimpered with both my hands covering up my face, Glen laughed awkwardly. “Do you think I’m a country bumpkin? I haven’t studied much, so I can’t help it...”

“No, I’m not in any position to judge others. I’ve felt ashamed countless times too, looking at these two and seeing how powerless I am in comparison,” the boy said.

“You too?”

“Yeah. Maika is an exemplary student who is accomplished in both literary and military arts. I admire her, since I am not very smart myself.”

Hearing that, I felt my lips bent downwards. How unfair.

“I guess people who are born into the count’s family are just special,” he remarked.

Not much can be done if their brilliance is tied to their blood.

“Yes, she comes from a wonderful lineage, but... Ash is even more amazing,” Glen suddenly added.

Ash? He was even more amazing than the count’s granddaughter? I wondered what family he could have possibly been from. However, the answer was completely beyond my expectations.

“He’s the son of a farmer. And yet he’s smarter than Maika, and strong enough to hold his own in a one-on-one fight with a werewolf.”

“No way...”

In other words, he had been born into an even lower-ranking household than me. My “nothing can be done” didn’t apply here.

“H-How?”

“He says that he was lucky and blessed with a good environment, but... Seeing how hard he works, I don’t think that’s all. He reads books almost every day, and duels with Maika in the mornings and evenings. He acts faster than anyone else and talks to more people than anyone else.”

What a feat of strength. It forced awake anyone who had shut their eyes pretending that nothing could be done. Had he really overcome his social status by sheer effort?

“Is that true?”

“Well, look at him. He just keeps on going... Not much you can do.”

His “not much you can do” sounded completely different than mine. It was not the kind of resignation where you closed your eyes and just pushed everything back into the dark void of your mind.

“Seeing him, I feel like I still have much work to do. I can still improve much more.”

Instead, his words reflected the resignation of someone who had found a dazzling light—something beautiful. He couldn’t help but admire it. There was “not much he could do” about his desire to reach out his hands towards that light.

“Are you doing all right?” I asked him.

Looking at the light. Reaching out towards it... It felt suffocating to me. My eyes shut themselves.

“Hm... To be honest, it can be exhausting at times.” Glen went on to tell me about the time when he had to calculate the soldiers’ meals. “Back then, I really felt like running away. I somehow managed to pull through with my seniors yelling at me, but I don’t know what would’ve happened had I been on my own. Well, once I return, I’ll be back to doing work like that again.” He was serious—his face looked a bit pale. “But even so, I’ll still do the job. When I look at these two, it motivates me. Even if I look away or close my eyes, these two are too bright for me to give up.” Glen’s face also seemed to be shining a little when he proclaimed those words.

“What on earth did they do that makes you say that?”

“Like I said earlier, these two have made quite a mess. The time when they made Mrs. Rihn—a top-tier maid—cry left quite the strong impression on me.” Glen went on to tell the story, which was indeed quite impressive.

Wait. Am I supposed to show these people around tomorrow? No way... Those thoughts gradually rose from the bottom of my mind.

●　●　●

The following morning, Glen overslept. He was called in front of Chief Maika, since being late for breakfast was unacceptable for a fresh recruit. There he gave an earnest apology and explained the reason. To put it simply, he had been with Lady Suiren until the small hours of the morning. However, it did not seem like they had slept together or there had been any sensual interactions. Apparently, Lady Suiren—who admired the city and the academy—had badgered him to talk about his own experiences there.

“Keep up the good work! It’d be great if our expedition party could build friendly relationships with our guide,” Chief Maika proclaimed in response to Glen’s explanation. All expedition members were also present, gulping down their breakfast.

Glen looked happy. He must have been relieved that he did not get scolded.

Thus, it became Glen’s official task to chat with Lady Suiren, the village chief’s daughter. That may have sounded like an extremely easy job, but if you referred to it as social interaction to gain the cooperation of an influential local figure, it became more serious.

In Adele, Lady Maika and I had been in charge of talking with the chief, and it had been a strictly business-related conversation. In that sense, Glen was ahead of us in terms of actual social relationships here in Ajole. Still, before he could get started on his new task, I needed him to accompany me to the forest.

Since we were only going to check on the shallow parts of the woods, light equipment was going to be good enough. Nonetheless, you never knew what was going to happen, so we both carried weapons as well as dried meat and hard bread. At the end of the day, it was not unheard-of for a ten-minute foraging trip to turn into a disaster.

As we stepped into the forest on the outskirts of Ajole, I immediately warned Glen. “Be prepared to draw your weapon at any time.”

“Understood.”

After adjusting his grip on the short spear that he was using as a walking cane, Glen asked me a question. “Is there something strange? To me it just looks like a normal forest.”

“The forest is strangely dark and quiet. It is my first time here, so I cannot say for sure that it is unusual, but...”

“If you feel like something’s off, I’ll be quiet and watch out. Better safe than sorry.”

“Thank you. I do not want to go too deep inside anyway, so let us wrap it up quickly.”

Although we were only in the fringes of the woods, we both explored one step at a time while checking our surroundings.

“It does not feel right. We may not be far in, but there is not a single trace of a boar or deer.”

“Yeah, that does sound strange. There hasn’t been a hunter in Ajole for years, right?”

“Exactly. I can see traces of small animals and birds, but...”

There was no evidence of any medium-sized animals. No monkeys or bears. Was that why the forest was so dark? The fruits and sprouts that were supposed to be eaten by the herbivores just kept on growing. Aside from the large trees covering our heads, most plants had grown to our height, and the grass was growing so thick that it was hard to see anything. This was problematic in several ways; it could easily lead to an overpopulation of insects and small animals, as well as depletion of the soil. It was a miracle that had not happened yet. This ecosystem was not in a good state.

“Well, at the very least, there are a lot of summer edible plants.”

After walking only for a short while, we were greeted by lots of plants and herbs that were going to enrich tonight’s meal. We should have brought a bigger basket. I could probably catch a squirrel as well, so I’ll put up some traps.

“Ash, do we really need that much?”

“Given Ajole’s current situation, no amount of food is too much. But then again...”

Upon hearing Glen’s words, who looked like a forest spirit carrying a mass of plants, I stopped laying out the trap I was working on.

“I may have gotten a bit too excited. I was reminded of my time back at the village and felt the duty to procure as many ingredients as possible.”

“I see. Well, that’s not a bad thing.”

Glen’s wry smile was full of warmth. Had I really been that excited? I had only set up thirty small-animal traps so far.

“Let us go back for today, then. We managed to confirm that there are a lot of edible plants growing wild here, so we should come back every day for as long as we stay.”

“We should also bring something to carry all the plants. No matter how careful we are, we can’t really defend ourselves like this.”

Looking at it purely from a work-optimization point of view, I agreed with Glen, who no longer looked like a knight apprentice at all with all the plants he was carrying. I wanted to restock many more ingredients after all.

The forest exploration was followed by an inspection of the fields. Our guide, Lady Suiren, was quite nervous as she consented to our request to inspect their farming work.

“You see, Ash? This is because you overwhelmed her with your usual enthusiasm yesterday...”

“Is that really my fault? I think I asked politely.”

“Too politely. It was so impeccable that it was scary.”

After Lady Maika’s lecture, I apologized to Lady Suiren for yesterday’s behavior and promised to take better care today.

“N-Not at all! M-Me too! I-I-I’ll try my best...in good conscience... I look forward to working with you!”

“Yes, me too.” I bowed to Lady Suiren and then immediately smiled at Lady Maika.

“Maika, I don’t think this is going to work,” Glen said.

“Yeah, me neither.”

No matter how you looked at it, Lady Suiren was in no state to be a proper guide, so we had Glen come along as an intermediary under the guise of being our escort. For the time being, we just had him chat with Lady Suiren—who had already reached her limits—while Lady Maika and I looked around the fields.

I had already suspected as much on our way to the village yesterday, but the situation was indeed dire. Due to the inattentive management, some crops were covered in weeds, or different types were growing all jumbled together. As a result, I was not able to tell which plots were reserved for summer or fall and which ones were idle.

After having a look around, I tried asking Lady Maika. “Maika, do you know which fields are for fall harvest?”

“No idea. Did you find the idle plots?”

“I am afraid not...”

Both our expressions screamed “this is bad!” Their crop rotation had failed. Trying to get this back to normal was going to require a lot of effort and money. How had it come to this?

In order to gain some insight, I asked our guide. “Suiren, how on earth does Ajole village currently— Um. I mean, is there someone who gives directions and takes the lead?”

Lady Suiren looked puzzled as she replied in a quiet voice. She must have guessed from my tone that I was lecturing her. “No, we don’t have anyone like that...”

“So, currently everyone uses their own field separately?”

“Yes. People use the plot they want because there are so many free ones, since many farmers passed away.”

Apparently, they had dispersed their manpower even further after the population had dwindled. It was the exact opposite of Adele village’s strategy. The fields’ condition was poor, there was not enough manpower, there were no leaders, and there was no unity among the villagers. I was at a loss. I did not know how to revive this village’s agriculture.

“Are there any discussions about your current problems going on?”

“Um... I’ve heard my father and Uncle Marco talk about it.”

“Who is Uncle Marco?”

He had the same name as Adele’s village chief. I felt bad for Lady Suiren, but I honestly wished Chief Marco were in charge of this village as well.

“Uncle Marco is the chief of Adele village.”

And she was in fact speaking about the person in question. Who would have thought? The villages were close to one another, but what was he doing discussing the neighboring village’s affairs?

“We met with Chief Marco from Adele before coming here,” I said.

“Oh, really? Is he doing all right?”

He looked better than anyone in this village. Their food situation was stable.

“Do your father and Chief Marco get along well?”

“Well... They were friends.” I guessed the rest from her use of the past tense and Ajole’s current situation. “But two years ago, they had an argument and exchanged some harsh words...”

I acknowledged it with a nod. If this had happened two years ago, it must have been when Adele was attacked by wild animals. I imagined that stress had contributed to Chief Marco’s harsh words. On top of that, Ajole had been in crisis for quite some time, so Chief Louis must have reciprocated the inflammatory language, and from there the situation just got worse.

“Do you remember what they argued about? Maybe it could be a hint to solving this problem.”

“He...” Lady Suiren fell silent, as if she wanted to swallow down the words that had just tried to escape her mouth. She seemed annoyed, possibly because her attempt was painful. For a while, there was a feeling of high tension in the air before she finally opened her mouth. “He asked us to move to Adele.”

“I see...”

Sensing an even greater danger than earlier, I tried to swiftly move the conversation along. It was a delicate matter ready to explode at any moment if handled carelessly. Still, I felt inclined to agree that the proposal to move to Adele may have been the best solution. In fact, I had reached the conclusion that Ajole was not going to recover. And even if they were, they probably needed to rebuild the village from scratch. Considering the effort and resources necessary, abandoning the village and moving to Adele was probably the best solution. Adele was willing to receive the people from Ajole that had lost their home.

Chief Marco must have been quite determined to make such a proposal two years ago, at a time when his own people were suffering. He had only made it because he was convinced that they were going to recover from the wild animal attack. The man had a lot of confidence in both himself and his daughter Renge. Confidence that was justified by their talent. Even still, Ajole village had not accepted Chief Marco’s proposal.

Lady Suiren’s red eyes indicated her shaking anger. Since our guide was rather worked up, I decided to wrap up today’s inspection. I had already confirmed that this was not a situation that could be easily solved.

I clapped my hands and signaled the end for today. “I have a lot to think about. Let us end the investigation for today.” Then, I immediately went to talk to Lady Maika. “Do you have time? I want to ask you for advice.”

“Of course. Is it regarding the fields?”

As I nodded, we walked off together. Lady Suiren and Glen were left behind and exchanged glances, puzzled at the sudden development. Just have some fun chatter and help her calm down again, Glen.

“After seeing the fields here...” Lady Maika murmured with a neutral expression, “I think the situation is best summed up by the phrase ‘even a sage can’t measure the sky.’”

It was a saying of this world, which meant that you were at a loss. It originated from a story about a person called “the great sage,” who was at a complete loss when he was asked “how wide is the sky?” after boasting about his own wisdom to the monkey god, the god of wisdom.

Lady Maika had used it as a roundabout expression—she could not bring herself to say out loud that she could not think of any method to deal with this village’s crisis.

“What do you think, Ash?”

“I concur wholeheartedly. Chief Marco’s proposal is the most realistic solution.”

“I thought so too.” Lady Maika held her cheek and let out a sigh. It was the stress of a person who understood that, while it was the most realistic solution, it was still difficult to implement. “No farmer wants to willingly give up their field.”

She had pointed out the biggest obstacle, which turned the objectively best solution into an unrealistic option. Farmers considered their plot of land an indispensable asset—a part of their existence. It was an essential difference between them, nomad folk or hunters, and gatherers, who repeatedly moved from land to land.

One may even say that farmers were similar to the crops they cultivated—they spread their roots and grew in the same plot of land. Telling them to move to a different land was like pulling out wheat and replanting it into a different plot. Unless it was done extremely carefully, the wheat was just going to wither in its new location.

“Now that I think about it, you readily—or even happily—left the village, didn’t you?” Lady Maika asked.

Being the flawless son of a farmer that I was, I let out a chuckle upon hearing Lady Maika’s question.

Saying that farmers were like their crops was of course just a metaphor. Humans are not like plants. We are able to move around according to our own will. That is why we are classified as animals and not plants. Moving to a different land is not a life-or-death situation like it is for delicate plants. Humans had evolved to move around the world. Accordingly, the farmers’ attachment to their plots was mere sentiment—love for the land where they were born and fear of the unknown.

To be honest, it aggravated me to think that an evolutionary trait that had developed over a span of time that might as well be an eternity to a single organism was being disregarded because of sentiment. It was rude towards evolution. Nevertheless, feelings are still a big part of human life. Ajole village was a testament to the importance of mere sentiment. Chief Marco had not solved the issue; he had failed to reach an agreement, which had put Ajole into an existential abyss. Sentiment was a matter of life and death to humans.

“If they only had the confidence that they could carry on their lives even after leaving behind their land, or that they could restart their lives, maybe they would change their minds.”

But I did not know how to give that confidence to the people who had only known this place. Even Lady Suiren, the village chief’s daughter, thought it was a preposterous idea.

“Hm... Confidence, huh?” Lady Maika looked at me as she pondered a possible solution. “Ah, I get it. You managed to leave straight away for the city because you were confident that you could carry on your life no matter where you went.”

“I would not necessarily say that...”

No, maybe she was right. That may have been the case. It was true that I had not had any concerns regarding life and death. Or you could say that I had been so excited that I had not even thought about the consequences.

“But even when I left the village, I was still with you,” I said.

“O-Oh. You didn’t worry because you were with me?”

Since Noscula village’s chief had decided to support me financially, I had had no worries regarding food, clothes, and shelter.

As I nodded with a smile, Lady Maika put both her hands on her cheeks. “Tee hee. I see, I see. Of course, I also feel at ease with you around!”

“Is that so? Thank you.”

Lady Maika really did have guts to say that she felt at ease around me when I kept on diving into strange new projects one after the other. As expected from the daughter of Goddess Yuika.

Suiren’s Perspective

I remember pushing away her extended hand.

Once I’d seen her teary eyes, I’d realized that my words had hurt her. All she had said was “Let’s live together.” My childhood friend had reached out her hand, asking me to leave the village where I had been born and start over in a wealthier place.

“Are you telling me to abandon my village?”

I think that’s what I said when pushing away her hand.

“That’s not what I mean, Suiren! Your fields have reached their limits and Adele can no longer support you. Ajole won’t be able to hold out at this rate!”

“But I can’t just abandon this place! I was born here! It’s special to me!”

That was a lie. I knew this better than anyone. After all, how much did I normally think about the village? My childhood friend, who was able to estimate the harvest yields, probably thought much more about it than me... But I closed my eyes to that reality. I hated it. I hated the miserable feeling that welled up inside of me.

My childhood friend was a shy and fainthearted person—I always led her by the hand when we played together. And yet she had graduated from the academy where I couldn’t go. She had learned how to manage a village. She had become an outstanding person...

I felt so miserable about the prospect of her helping me because I hadn’t been able to do anything for my starving village. But that was not all. Looking at how much my childhood friend had matured, I couldn’t see myself becoming anything like her. I felt hopeless—inside my mind there was a dim, flickering light that seemed on the verge of going out. Maybe if I did my best from here on out, I could find a light on top of the steep hill, shining as bright as a star, but...

No! It was impossible for me. There was no way. I could’ve never reached that light, shining like an illusion at the end of a long and winding road. What if I failed? What if I never arrived? What if the light had disappeared by the time I got there? What if it was all just an illusion and there was nothing there to begin with?

I couldn’t bear that fear. I would have rather stayed the way I was. Hungry—not knowing whether I was going to have something to eat the next day. Suffering. In pain. But at least I knew this pain and suffering. I had managed to make it through yesterday. And today. Therefore, maybe I was going to make it through tomorrow too. That was why I was fine with the way things were.

I was weaker than my timid childhood friend, but as long as I didn’t have to face an unknown fear, I was able to put up with this reality. Everything was fine as it was. Everything was okay. I was sure our situation was going to improve before long. Someone was going to save us—someone like my childhood friend, who had graduated from the academy I couldn’t join. Just like that, I convinced myself as I closed my eyes yet again.

And finally, someone had come to save us. As expected, they were graduates from the academy and extremely reliable. But their assistance was a bit different from what I had expected.

“Okay, Suiren. I arranged this wheat so that the older ones are at the front and the newer ones at the back. You should consume them starting with the ones at the front. Now, here is a question for you. If you used two bags a day, how many days would the wheat last you?”

“U-Um... One, two, three... Wait. How far did I count?”

“Counting one-by-one is inefficient! The more time and effort it takes, the easier it is to make a mistake. This is why you should use multiplication, which I taught you earlier. There are five wheat bags in a row, and there are ten columns, so how many are there in total? Glen, answer!”

“Using multiplication, you do five times ten, Suiren. It’s fifty bags!”

“Well done! Now tell me, Suiren. How long will these fifty bags last if you use two per day?”

“Um, um...! I-I don’t know!”

“No, you do! Just think about it! Do not worry! We are pressed on time, so I will not hold back, but I will not abandon you either! Trust me!”

Sorry for trying to show off! It was not just a bit, but a lot different from what I had expected. Even though I had surrendered, Ash did not let me admit defeat. Was I really being saved? It felt more like an assault, or a punishment... It felt like the punishment where your body was pulled apart by horses... However, he was very patient and taught me the same thing over and over again, so it also felt very considerate. Yeah, I think he’s helping, right?

“Why are you giving up already? If you give up, the project is done for! You need to use division, which I taught you earlier. What? You do not remember it? All right, let us review it then!”

But Ash’s energy was so overwhelming that it didn’t feel like help after all! Not even in the slightest! Someone help me! We’ve only just met, but please save me, Glen!

“A-Ash, don’t you think it’s a bit too much for Suiren?”

Thanks, Glen! Honestly, if it hadn’t been for Glen—who was helping Ash teach me—my mind would’ve exploded already. Really, thank you... Glen looked a bit rugged and scary, but he was kind and reliable.

“Glen, you are so kind! But you need to turn into a demon and continue the lesson! This level of arithmetic is indispensable for the food distribution project’s continuation after we are gone. I imagine Suiren does not want to go hungry either, right? Okay, let us start reviewing!”

Glen gave me an extremely pitiful look.

Yeah, I get it. He won’t stop, right? Aha ha ha. There’s “nothing you can do.” At that moment, I realized that there are some things that yank open your eyes even if you close them.

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