Paper Is Hotter Than Flames

The wind blowing in through the window was filled with a faint but sweet scent. It was the fragrance of spring flowers competing to attract the insects that had woken up for pollination. Winter had already passed. While listening to the wind’s hearsay, I realized that I had been asleep.

“Oops... When did I...”

Lifting my head, I saw a stack of papers lying on my office desk. Apparently, I had fallen asleep while doing work at the Promotion Office. The desk looked rather organized, so I must have used my last willpower before falling asleep to properly put aside my work. I was glad I had not ruined any of the documents with my drool.

“What a blunder to fall asleep at my desk...”

I had to sleep in the bed if I wanted to properly restore my energy. This way my work efficiency was only going to decrease. I stood up and keenly felt the price for sleeping in such an unnatural position as parts of my body cracked.

“Hey, it’s Ash!” Lady Maika made an early morning appearance at the office.

“Are you already working?”

“No, I just woke up.”

As I scratched my head, Lady Maika realized my disgraceful behavior and puffed up her cheeks.

“Again! What if you catch a cold? You work too much!”

“Please forgive me. I didn’t mean to sleep here either.”

“No, I can’t let this slide! Several people told me to keep an eye on you!”

“Several people?”

“Like Arthur!”

I wondered how close they were for Lord Arthur’s name to come up before her parents’.

“All right. I got it. I will take care, okay?” Overwhelmed by Lady Maika, who had come closer to rebuke me for my unhealthy habits, I put on a wry smile.

“Ah! Th-That smile again! I won’t let you fool me again!”

I was not sure what my smile looked like, but Lady Maika had flinched.

“No good?”

“Nope.”

Her voice had become softer. This was my chance. Without a moment’s delay, I put on my saddest face and dropped my shoulders.

“I know that fake expression. You can’t deceive me anymore,” she said.

It didn’t even take a second for her to expose me. As expected from my childhood friend.

As a punishment for my cheap trick, Lady Maika’s scolding powered up. “Ash! I’m saying this for your sake!”

“I am sorry. I will not do it again...”

“You always say that but then go on to do something reckless! It’s been like that ever since you got lost in the forest!”

This led to a five-minute-long lecture from Lady Maika. A scolding like that was exhausting, but Lady Maika demonstrated her advanced people skills by bringing me breakfast immediately afterwards. She knew how to balance reward and punishment. Just like the dormitory knew how to balance their delicious breakfasts.

“Thank you, Maika.”

“You should thank Chef Yacoo. He was the one who generously shared it when I asked him if there was any left.”

“You are right, but...” I smiled at Lady Maika while stuffing my cheeks with smoked pork. “I am happy you worried about me.”

“Y-You’re happy? B-Because I worry?”

It was pleasant to know that someone worried about you. Just like with my goddess, Yuika. Although I would have preferred the scolding to be a bit shorter.

Lady Maika sat silent with an embarrassed look on her face, but by the time I had finished breakfast, she was back to her usual lively self.

“Are you really doing okay, Ash? You’ve been working nonstop since fall harvest.”

“I think I am doing fine. I am aware that I am tired, but I am also making sure to take breaks in order not to harm my health.” Like right now. I was relaxing with a cup of tea after my meal.

“You do seem to have a strong constitution. Even back at the village, you never caught a cold...” She did not try to hide her deep worries as she stared at my face to check my complexion. “Mmh... You’ve got big dark circles under your eyes. Makes you look a bit scary...”

“Yes, I am definitely lacking sleep. Especially this morning.”

“You’ve got to sleep properly!”

“I know. If I do not get a good night’s sleep today, my work will suffer.”

Lady Maika made me promise to sleep well tonight. Did I really look that bad?

While I was stroking my own cheeks, Lady Maika murmured to herself with a serious look on her face. “He looks better refreshed...”

“What did you say?”

“O-Oh! Nothing!”

Are you sure? I considered pointing out any breach of etiquette in a coworker’s appearance an act of kindness. Anyway, it appeared that girls her age considered dark circles under the eyes unsightly. I needed to make sure to get enough sleep.

While taking a sip from my tea, I picked up some documents from my desk. It was the laboratory’s report. Following the plow, new animal-powered farming tools had been completed.

“It looks like the harrow and the drill seeder have been completed. Both are still prototypes, but seem to work properly so far. I plan on using them in Ajole to find out any unknown problems.”

Our laboratory team was really outstanding.

“Oh, right. So it will be easier to sow seeds next time?”

“Yes, I think we can aim to plant enough seeds to make the village self-sufficient with this year’s fall harvest.”

That way they could get back on track for the time being. It was still going to take several years until the situation stabilized, but the burden would become much lighter if they no longer needed to rely on food aid. At the very least, it would no longer be necessary to look after them this closely. They had to endure this pain only a little longer.

“Say, Ash, why are we doing this in Ajole?” I reflexively stiffened when hearing her question the basics of my plan. “It would’ve been possible to do this in another village too, right? Like Noscula. The villagers would’ve been more cooperative, and we wouldn’t have had to provide as much food.”

“Yes, indeed.”

She was quite right. It would not have been just possible, but actually easier to conduct the experiment in another village.

“Of course, I haven’t forgotten what you said at the start. That Ajole didn’t properly appreciate Adele village and Renge’s support. I can imagine that made you angry. It irritates me too.” She puffed up her cheeks. “But I didn’t think that alone would’ve made you put in place a difficult plan like this. It’s not like you to act just because you feel a little irritated.”

“Is it not?”

I felt like I was living in the moment and acting upon impulses in this world. After all, I was so simple that I started to get serious because of my admiration for a fairy tale.

“It’s not like you at all.” However, it appeared that Lady Maika did not see me in the same way. “You’re much more extreme than your appearance suggests, but you’re also extremely kind. I know you’re not going to do anything absurd just because you took offense. Although I’ve seen you act rashly because you got angry out of kindness.”

I wondered what made her think I was extreme. I was just as gentle and mild-mannered as my looks suggested.

As my doubts piled up, Lady Maika nodded with a gentle look on her face. “It’s because of Renge, right?” She spoke as if she had it all figured out. “And Chief Marco, I guess. You must be frustrated that their kind help wasn’t appreciated even though they did everything in their power.”

I felt compelled to nod to her inquiring stare. “I guess that is true to an extent...”

As I replied as vaguely as possible, Lady Maika gave a motherly smile. “I feel the same. Especially in regard to Renge. Chief Marco mentioned she’s always been shy. It must have taken her a lot of courage to go talk to Suiren and become friends.”

I nodded in complete agreement. I could not deny that Ajole’s reaction made me even angrier when imagining Lady Renge’s shock.

“Renge is already shy to begin with. To think that she withdrew herself even further after getting into a fight with her friend Suiren...” Lady Maika said.

It was a waste of her talent. If she had been more proactive in her interactions with her surroundings, she could have achieved so much more by now. This was a potentially huge loss of assets. I could not hide my frustration.

“Yeah, it makes you want to do something for her,” I said.

Lady Maika replied with a cheerful smile. “You really are so kind, Ash. That’s why I—Heh heh.” She hid her slightly red cheeks with her teacup. After drinking up the tea, she stood up brimming with energy. “All right! Let’s start today’s work then!”

“You seem motivated.” Her sudden change of mood left me perplexed.

On the spur of the moment, she raised her fist. “If all goes according to plan, I’m sure we’ll be able to mediate between Suiren and Renge.”

“Yes, sounds great. I had planned on confronting Suiren anyway sometime.”

“I’ll help where I can!”

Immediately after I moved back to my desk together with the energized Lady Maika, the Promotion Office’s door opened.

“G-Good morning!” Lady Renge’s voice was twice as loud as usual.

“Morning, Renge!”

“Good morning. You seem to be in a good mood today.”

Uncharacteristically, Lady Renge clearly agreed. “Yes! I’ll also do my best!”

She sat down on her desk full of motivation and with a tint of red on her cheeks. Her attitude was unusually proactive. Just now, she had said “I’ll also” if I had heard correctly.

When I sent a fleeting glimpse towards Lady Maika, she scratched her face in an adorable manner. Most likely, Lady Renge had overheard our earlier conversation. Both Lady Maika and I seemed to agree on that point. We had not talked about anything that we did not want her to hear, but I felt like we had said some slightly embarrassing things for her to hear. Let’s just not talk about this anymore. Once again, Lady Maika and I exchanged glances and nodded in agreement. I took a deep breath and picked up some documents. There was a lot of work to do.

“Oh, looks like we received a donation from Quid.”

Mr. Quid frequently donated money to the Territory Reform Promotion Office to increase our budget, and he appeared to have done it again. The spirit lamp must have been a success, and these were the returning profits. Since the laboratory’s development speed had increased, our budget tended to be insufficient, so this donation was more than welcomed. I had to go thank him in person another day.

During the agricultural experiment plan’s second year, reports showed that Ajole village started to stabilize. Recultivating desolate fields was a hard task at first, but once you had reconquered the fields, they started cooperating. Of course, nature was still mostly in charge. As such, it required a great deal of effort to keep those fields under control, but the villagers of Ajole seemed to be doing fine. They were slowly turning into fine farmers as they regained their lost knowledge and techniques. I even considered the possibility of using this fall as a turning point to complete the first stage of the plan. However, I was met with disquieting news, almost as if some predator had found fault with my over-optimistic calculation.

“Chief Louis recovered and he is coming back as village chief?”

Glen, who was diligently making round trips between the city and the village, confirmed my question with a worried look on his face.

“Is it not good news that he recovered?” I asked.

“Isn’t it a bit suspicious that he would ‘recover’ at such an opportunistic time after lying ill for over a year?”

His disdainful tone conveyed his disapproval of the recovery better than any bad language could have done. In general, Glen was a virtuous boy who did not speak ill of others. He was the type of person who easily turned jealousy into respect. He was great at distilling people’s good sides and openly expressing his favorable opinions. You could say that he was the epitome of a knight. Steadily, Glen approached his own idealized image. To see someone like him express disdain so clearly was not just unusual but concerning.

“What is Chief Louis up to?” I asked.

“So far, he hasn’t done anything that stands out, but...I guess you could say his actions are disquieting.”

According to Glen, the villagers who did not show themselves willing to work much had all gathered around Chief Louis. Just hearing that already made my head hurt. Until now, those delinquents who slacked off and neglected the farm work had been isolated. I had made sure of this. Humans tended to lose their motivation when they saw people slacking off next to them. Therefore, I tried turning Ajole village into a place where those delinquents were the minority and the honest, hardworking people the majority.

If you rewarded those who worked hard with extra food, then naturally the fellows who did not receive as much food would feel inferior. There were no benefits to hanging out with those delinquents. On the contrary, if people stuck to the model villagers, they could learn some tricks and maybe even receive some of that extra food. Now, who would you prefer as friends? The residents of Ajole naturally went with the hardworking model villagers.

That system allowed me to isolate the delinquents from the rest and make sure they did not possess any influence. However, now there was news of a conspiracy between the delinquents and Chief Louis. While the latter had not worked at all in the past year, he was still the village chief, which made him the most influential person in Ajole. I had a bad feeling just thinking about a conspiracy between discontented residents and the village authority.

I pressed on my temples in an attempt to soothe my headache while confirming. “How is Suiren doing?”

“It’s tough on her. Chief Louis doesn’t even talk to me, but he keeps giving instructions of his own to Suiren.”

“Oh, is that so?” A shrill warning sound signaled an emergency stop of my mild-mannered ways. “As the village participating in the agricultural experiment, anyone in Ajole, including the village chief, must follow the Territory Reform Promotion Office’s instructions.”

And rightfully so. We had been left in charge of their village by order of the count, who had the power to appoint and dismiss village chiefs. Consequently, our position was above the village chief’s.

“So you are telling me that he is giving out unauthorized orders to Suiren, who is under our superior command.”

He had some nerve to challenge someone of higher ranking. Was he prepared to get legally crushed by my authority?

Inside my head, I was already constructing the gallows when Glen voiced his worries of the highest priority. “Yes, precisely. And even I can tell that his instructions won’t have any good influence on the fields. Suiren and the other villagers don’t want the harvest yield to decrease either, you know? Suiren’s been trying her best to explain the situation and refute her father’s arguments.”

“Oh? I am pleased to hear that.”

It appeared that Suiren and the other villagers had learned how to steadily stand on their own feet after spending the last year under my guidance improving their meals through their own hard work. Since I had spent a whole year observing them, I apparently had grown attached to them. I was soothed by the signs of their growth. And accordingly, I also felt angry towards Chief Louis. It felt like I was swelling up to the point of exploding due to the difference in temperature between the feelings of calmness and rage.

“We should precipitate our next expedition,” I declared.

“I agree. Judging from your smile, it looks like I can count on you this time.”

In order to maintain morale, it was important for any superior to show that they were in control of the situation. Glen, you don’t have to look so stiff. You can reciprocate the smile, you know?

Now then, I wasted my precious vacation time to join an extraordinary expedition party, which was greeted as usual by Lady Suiren. However, the fact that she greeted us further away from the village than usual already revealed some of the problems.

“U-Um... Ash! Listen, I...”

Lady Suiren’s uneasiness was markedly written on her face when she tried to tell me something. It appeared that she carried a heavier burden than anticipated from Glen’s report. I showed more consideration than usual towards my ally, who was clearly doing her best—I greeted her with a gentle smile.

“I have not seen you in a long time, Suiren. Glen told me that you have been having a hard time, so I came to help. You do not have to worry anymore.”

“Th-Thank you!”

I had only replied to her initial greeting, but I could already see the relief on her face.

“You can thank Glen. I only grasped the situation because of his report.”

“Y-Yes, will do!”

In an instant, her somber expression changed into a bright and cheerful one. It seemed they had gotten along quite well this year. I would have loved to hear more about these two, but more pressing matters were at hand.

“Let us not lose any time then. Can you bring me to your father? Since I did not get to meet him while he was sick in bed, I have a lot of things to tell him.”

“Y-Yes, um...” She looked up at me with a worrying look before bowing her head and wishing me good luck.

At the village chief’s house, Chief Louis, who had been bedridden for over a year, was sitting in an unexpectedly sturdy posture in his chair. A feeble smile came over his fairly plump face. He probably was the only overweight person in this village. It indeed seemed a bit suspicious that he would have recovered from a long-lasting illness at such an ideal time.

“You must be from the Territory Reform Promotion Office. You also look very young, like your chief.”

He reached out his hand from the seat of honor at his table and I shook it from the lower seat. When I had met with Chief Marco from Adele it had been the opposite, by the way.

“Allow me to introduce myself. I am Ash, the Territory Reform Promotion Office’s head of planning.”

From our handshake, I immediately realized that Chief Louis was a stranger to hard work. His skin was not calloused or rough at all. Conversely, the hands of Lady Suiren, a young maiden in love, looked much more like those of a hardworking person. Within ten seconds of seeing his face, I concluded that Chief Louis could not be trusted—neither as a farmer nor as a civil official.

“Let us not waste anymore time, then, Chief Louis. I have come to review the agricultural experiment plan’s future. Is that all right with you?”

Chief Louis seemed to be taken aback. He was slightly annoyed by my sudden proposal to talk business, but he readily agreed. “Yes, of course. Due to my long-lasting illness, I inconvenienced everyone, including my daughter. I need to make up for that time.”

This guy seemed indeed to be unaware of his current position. In his mind, he had already regained his power as the village chief and relieved Lady Suiren of her duties as his representative. It was time to teach him that the Promotion Office, which was currently managing this village, had no intention of letting him do that.

“You should not be pushing yourself this hard so quickly after recovering. Besides, Suiren has produced great results this past year during her time as acting village chief.”

“Yes, it appears that my daughter has been very active. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to send her to the military academy, but she managed to grow considerably through this project.”

“And that is why I would like to keep her in charge of the plan’s local management. If I suddenly changed the manager, that would only lead to confusion.”

Although there was in fact already confusion in this village thanks to Chief Louis. It would have been better if he just kept sleeping and recovered a bit more from his “illness.”

As I let him know in polite language that he should keep out of our affairs, Chief Louis nodded several times with a feeble smile on his face, making it unclear whether he had realized my intentions or not.

“It looks like my daughter really did her best. I already heard from the villagers, but hearing it from a capable city-dweller like you reaffirms it.” Keeping his slight smile, Chief Louis went on to defy my point head on. “But my daughter also has her flaws. I cannot overlook that as the village chief. As an outsider, you probably wouldn’t understand...”

“Oh.”

Since Chief Louis had graduated from the military academy—where he had also befriended Chief Marco—he knew how to properly quarrel with the elite without causing offense. This middle-aged man, who pretended to be ill and was fatter than anyone in the village, put on a feeble smile and told me this was none of my business as an outsider. I reflexively grinned in response to his manner of speaking, which enraged even someone as mild-mannered as myself.

“May I ask you what kind of flaws she has?”

“I’m afraid I cannot tell an outsider... Please just consider for a moment why I may have been ill for such an abnormally long time.”

“That does not sound appropriate.”

He appeared to be saying that his biological daughter had confined him in an attempt to gain power as village chief. What an absurd excuse. Did he really think I was going to buy that?

“Maybe we should have some soldiers from the city investigate this disturbing situation,” I said.

“I am grateful for the proposal, but...” His facial expression was the only thing apologetic about Chief Louis as he shook his head. “That won’t be necessary, since it’s an internal affair.”

“I am afraid I cannot overlook this crime. This village is home to my precious project, and I cannot have any problems interfering with that project’s management.”

Since any poor excuse would only make his offenses worse, Chief Louis was not able to reply honestly. “I see. I guess we’ve got a problem, then.”

“Yes, a serious problem indeed.”

Both the current and the next count had been very enthusiastic about this project. There was no way that the opinion of an out-of-luck village chief could sway them. Nevertheless, the man in front of my eyes who called himself the village chief did not seem to understand the situation.

“Could we not suspend the project for the time being?”

His outrageous excuse was followed by an even more outrageous proposal. So outrageous that this discussion was about to break down.

“Are you serious?”

I voiced my honest surprise in a casual tone, unbecoming of an ongoing negotiation. If Mother Yae had heard me, she would have seriously reprimanded me for my blunder.

As expected, Chief Louis continued to show his arrogance. “Yes. Moreover, I have heard from some villagers that there have been problems with your plan.”

“Problems?”

This was no good. I was so surprised that I only repeated back what he said.

“Some villagers have been unfairly receiving less food. And this seems to be the result of your guidance, so you must have known yourself.”

“Right.”

I could think of a reason or two why he claimed that it was unfair to give larger rewards to those who worked harder than those who did not put in much effort or did no work at all.

“As a city dweller who has food, clothing, and shelter in abundance, you may not understand this, but in this poor village, we have always helped each other out.”

“Right.”

Except those who were helping the most were undoubtedly the villagers who justifiably received more food rather than those who “unfairly” received less. The latter were only in charge of whatever little work was leftover, which I did not count as helping out. To me they were a kind of parasite. And I absolutely hated parasites. I hated the very concept of them.

As I reevaluated Chief Louis’s sanity in light of our clashing points of view, his voice became increasingly more excited as he seemed to head for the climax.

“If your plan requires me to abandon even just one of my dear fellow villagers, I cannot accept it.”

“I see.” Since he appeared to be finished for now, I briefly acknowledged his statement before confirming. “Are you insane?”

“No, of course not. I just don’t want to abandon any of my villagers, even if they are in the minority. You on the other hand want to abandon them, so maybe you’re—”

Before Chief Louis could finish his sentence with that strained, feeble smile on his face, I raised my hand and interrupted him. “That is not what I meant. This agricultural experiment plan was officially put in place through negotiations with the acting village chief. It sounds like you want to unilaterally tear up our agreement.”

That was the implied meaning of the plan’s suspension. If they had acted like this against another territory, it would have led to a war. Within the territory, it would be considered an act of treason. Did he really want to cause such great trouble?

“Not at all.” Apparently not. “I merely want it to be suspended. Yes, my daughter temporarily inherited the authority of the village chief. However, that was due to my illness, and shamefully I only have a vague memory of what happened during that period.”

“Meaning?”

“I think His Excellency the count, thoughtful as he is, will take into consideration the fact that I was not able to make a proper judgment as village chief when the contract was signed.”

No, I don’t think His Excellency will take that into consideration.

The count was the type of person that became enraged by such a painful—or should I say unsightly—excuse. At the very least, the acting count, who was going to hear this first, would immediately consider him an enemy.

“So, in conclusion...” While fighting a headache brought on by these fruitless negotiations, I summoned my remaining willpower. “You want to void the contract between us and Ajole village regarding our plan’s implementation because you doubt the legitimacy of the acting village chief—Lady Suiren—who signed it?”

“No, I want to suspend it. Do not mistake me. I want to suspend it so I can take some time to examine it again... Other than that, you are right.”

Earlier, this man in front of me had already accused his own daughter. He wanted to push all the responsibility onto her and turn over the tables. He may not have been sane, but he was serious. I wondered if he was aware of the huge mound of problems his proposal entailed.

“In that case, we will also have to suspend the food supplies and ask you to return the farming tools while the plan is on hold. Are you okay with that?”

“Well, that cannot be helped.” Chief Louis, who worriedly shook his head, did seem to understand the gravity of the situation after all. “However, I don’t think you can carry back all the supplies and farming tools right away. If you do that, many villagers will suffer. And I don’t think His Compassionate Excellency would want that. Besides, the villagers may find it hard to go back to work if the plan resumes.”

“Hm. I did not consider that problem. Thank you for pointing it out. You have got quite a unique point of view.” Must be a parasite’s point of view.

This parasite in front of my eyes who called himself a village chief was looking for more support using the hardworking villagers as a shield. I had to admit that he was quite skilled at using others. That was harder to forgive than him being incompetent.

I had intended to reply with a smile on my face, but I was unable to keep my bloodlust from showing in my eyes. Chief Louis must have sensed it, as he hastily expanded upon his statement.

“Moreover, there is a possibility that the starving villagers would resort to evil deeds in order to feed their families.”

“That would of course be a problem. Especially with the promising Adele village nearby.” Since my plan also aimed to resolve the problem of potential banditry, I shared his concern.

However, Chief Louis seemed disposed to dig an even deeper grave for himself, as he presented me with a statement that exceeded all my expectations. “And I’ve heard that the farming techniques our villagers learned this time around are new and secret. It would be a shame if those were leaked to the outside.”

“Yes, that would be a grave problem.”

This parasite was even capable of threatening its host. What a versatile specimen. Unfortunately, he had made a fatal mistake by angering his host.

“I understand your concerns. In that case, however, I cannot make a decision myself.” I let out a brief sigh before standing up. “I have to report back to my superior and Lord Itsuki. It was a short visit, but I will take my leave now.”

“Understood. I’m sorry for causing such inconvenience due to my long-lasting illness.”

“Not at all. You never know what will lead to a good outcome in this world.”

This was the only thing that I could say with confidence. After talking with this village chief, I realized what a true godsend Lady Suiren had been as a manager this past year. When I had first met her, she was quite the problem child herself, but she did not harbor any bad intentions. I had thought our general—luck—was not going to show itself this time, but it turned out that it had actually been hard at work. I’ll have to send a prayer of gratitude to Goddess Yuika later.

Suiren’s Perspective

Ash went back the same day he had come to the village. He was always busy, but whenever he came all the way to this village, he usually stayed at least a day to observe the fields, inspect the food storage, or investigate the forest. He wasn’t his usual self. I felt compelled to ask my dad what on earth he had told Ash. In brief, he had threatened him in a very polite manner.

Unsure whether I should turn pale in fear or red in anger, I started shouting loudly. “How can you talk to Ash like that?! What do you think will happen?”

“What will happen? Nothing. What can a greenhorn like him do?”

Each time I heard my dad sneer at Ash it sent shivers down my spine. He had confined himself to his bed this whole time, so he didn’t know how dangerous Ash was. He hadn’t seen Ash dispassionately scold us with an intent to kill after our first harvest. I still felt the flame of his words singe my chest. You didn’t want to make him your enemy. Rather, you wanted him on your side.

While he could be scary at times, he was a great teacher, and he didn’t spare any support. When my father had given permission to those villagers to just take the food supplies, Ash had sent us a little extra food, and when I had begged for help in tears, he had sent reinforcements. That’s how powerful he was. At the very least, it was thanks to Ash that no one had died from starvation this whole year.

“Look how great our fields are thanks to Ash! There’s no need to make things complicated now!”

“You keep quiet. This is our chance to make this village wealthier.”

“There’s no need to. Just look at the fields!”

Our once desolate fields had become this abundant. No, we made them this abundant. The villagers and I made them abundant while complaining and almost giving up, but in the end continuing, thanks to Ash pushing our backs. If I said “desperate to survive,” Ash was going to get angry again. I had never in my life worked so hard towards anything else. Those fields were the fruits of our labor.

After listening to my plea, my father gave a wry smile and grumbled. “That’s a problem too.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just think about it.”

My dad lowered his voice and muttered, almost as quietly as a crawling insect. “This village has always had bad harvests. If that suddenly changed after those guys appeared, the village chief would be labeled inept!”

What about it? That was obvious already. The village managed to get back on track in no time once a proper leader appeared and took charge. Anyone could see how inept the village chief was.

“Dad, are you serious? That’s such a trivial reason.”

“It’s not trivial at all! You’ll also stop being the village chief’s daughter, you know?!”

You didn’t do anything when this village was on the verge of extinction, so you can’t really call yourself the village chief anyways.

We were still called the chief family only because I went out to the fields and worked together with everyone else. It didn’t amount to much more than courtesy. And this man, who had hidden in his bed this whole time just—! My words got stuck in my throat. I was surprised at how hot they felt. Even when I had snapped at Ash, I hadn’t been this angry. I had never been this angry before. I was furious with my biological dad. I tightly clenched my fists, not knowing what I was going to do next, but my next move was prevented by some sudden bad news.

“H-Help! Suiren, the people that went into the forest encountered treants!”

A fellow villager had barged in as if he had rammed the door.

“T-Treants? What? Wait, why did they go into the forest...? Dad?!”

I immediately knew whom to suspect. Even though Ash had told us to keep away from the forest because it seemed strange! As I turned around to stare down my dad, he had already escaped into the bedroom.

“You’ve got to be kidding me! Wh-Where are you going?!”

“Sorry, I feel ill... I leave the rest to you.”

“You what?!”

I couldn’t help but hurl a cup from the table at my cowardly dad.

Aaah! I can’t take this anymore. What should I do? I didn’t know what to do in a situation like this at all. No one had taught me. Why did this happen now? This was too much. I couldn’t do anything. I was scared. I felt like I was suffocating. But I didn’t want to shut my eyes. On the contrary, I clenched my teeth and opened my eyes.

This was the same as always. It had been like this the whole past year. Ash always told me things I didn’t know. So many firsts. And I was always on the verge of giving up and breaking into tears, but in the end I always managed to do the previously impossible. This was nothing compared to Ash’s surging waves of orders.

First, you need to calm down, Suiren.

Treants had appeared. Demons—which we should fight. But there was no one strong enough in this village. It was impossible. Nothing could be done. Absolutely nothing could be done... Someone, help! I was about to cry. I mean, I mean... The moment I had thought about asking for their help, their faces had popped into my head. Ash was waiting for me on the other side. Glen was leading me by the hand. And even without looking backward, I knew whose small hand was pushing me forward. Thank you for always having my back, Renge.

“I’ll go to the city to get help!” I declared.

I was certain they were going to help. But first, I needed to get within a distance where they could hear my scream for help. The city was far away, but not so far that you couldn’t walk there.

“Something can be done.”

Apart from the person that had brought the news, other villagers had gathered at the house after hearing the ruckus. We were friends who had suffered together through starvation and Ash’s unreasonable requests. We had managed to cultivate the fields while on the verge of an emotional breakdown. They all looked worried. Had we come this far only to be killed off by demons? That thought made my worries turn into anger. I no longer wanted to ignore the absurd. I no longer thought that “nothing could be done.” I felt energized.

“Everyone, get back to your homes! I promise I will go get help!”

I was not going to let it end here. Not after we had struggled this much to get here. I was not going to give up so easily!

Single-mindedly, I walked along the carriage’s wheel tracks towards the city—towards them. I kept walking to call for help as soon as possible. The sun had already set a while ago. The plants alongside the path scornfully laughed at me, walking through the dark all by myself. The cold night wind followed me, trying to put out the torch flame. Some wolves were howling, but they sounded far away, so they weren’t after me. The strange something that had run past my legs must have been a mouse. And the mysterious aura coming from the meadow must have been my imagination. It had to be. Or...

In order to prevent myself from stopping in my tracks and crouching down, I just reminded myself to keep moving forward, one step at a time. I was scared. I was in pain too. With each step, my legs were throbbing with pain from the soles to the knees to the lower back. I was also thirsty. My water flask was already empty, and my lips hurt with each gasp. My tears had dried out a while back, as had my sweat. But still, I moved forward, biting my teeth to withstand my leg pain and swallowing down any feeble complaints. Always forward.

I was surprised at myself. Had I always been this strong? I felt my cracked lips turn into a smile. There was no way someone like me was strong. I just had to remind myself how I had brushed away my childhood friend’s hand. If only I had been strong enough to grasp her hand back then, I would have... I had always regretted it—even now. I was weak. I had always been weak. I was a coward who had shut her eyes and tried to run away from her weak self.

But now, I had enough strength to fearfully gaze with narrow eyes at my own weakness. What would happen to the village if I broke down now? It would get attacked and destroyed by the demons. What would happen to the fields if I didn’t call for help? They would go to waste. What would happen to the villagers if I stopped walking? What would happen to everyone who gathered in the fields, worked together while complaining, and shared their joy when the wheat crops finally ripened? This was the scariest part to imagine—they would all die.

Every single face popped into my head. I hadn’t remembered their faces this clearly until recently. That just made it scarier. My weak self would not be able to keep it together if those faces disappeared. I had to prevent it at all costs...!

I moved my legs forward. Always forward. To protect my weak self, to run away from the scary things. Forward. Always forward. The torchlight was finally blown out by the night wind. The darkness gathered around as if it were going to squash me.

“I need to keep going forward!”

I stared at my feet. Even without a light, as long as I didn’t lose sight of the path at my feet, I would eventually arrive in the city. To see where Renge, Ash, and Glen lived...

My eyes got blurry. Actually, there was some kind of light. My eyes were dazzled by the light.

“Ah...”

I looked up. I thought I had heard an old, familiar voice. The white light driving away the night appeared like a hand reaching out to me—my eyes welled up with tears, which I had thought dried up. At the end of a long night, the morning had arrived. Under the rising sun, the stone wall rose like a watchtower. It was just like Glen had described it. Itsutsu City’s stone wall was crooked and a little worn out. It was a wall that reassured everyone who looked upon it.

●　●　●

After enduring the harsh feat of leaving the village on the same day that I had arrived, I promptly requested an emergency meeting with Chief Maika and the acting count. Usually, when the three of us convened, it ended up being more of a family tea party rather than a work meeting. Lord Itsuki loved his cute niece, and Lady Maika also tended to act more casually around her uncle to distract him from his daily heavy responsibilities. As Lady Maika’s friend, it was my duty to remind them of the topics we were discussing. Considering that those meetings often dealt with important matters, such as big-budget decisions, they often became too loose. However, this time around no one was smiling.

“Out of the question.”

Hearing my report, Lord Itsuki’s decision was quick and concise. As expected, the compassionate and thoughtful acting count was furious at Chief Louis’s request.

After responding to my report with that one short statement, Lord Itsuki quickly called his maid and gave her some orders. The three of us had decided at the meeting that Chief Louis deserved punishment. Now we just needed to follow the required procedures and wait for his disposal. I wondered when we could leave for Ajole village again.

As I planned the next expedition in my head, Lady Maika pouted with her arms crossed. “But why would Louis say something so stupid?”

Oh! Lady Maika did not bother to address him by his proper title. As far as I was aware, he was the second person to receive that treatment.

“I mean, you’re an emissary from the Territory Reform Promotion Office!” she continued. “You’re an authority figure! I told him at the start that the Promotion Office is an important department working in the count’s name. And Suiren should know this too.”

By anyone’s standards, confronting me with those statements was the same as picking a fight with the count himself. It was a terrible act against the person who appointed the village chiefs, led the military, and administered justice. Naturally, Lady Maika had her doubts.

Lord Itsuki took a sip from his tea before letting out a sigh and warned his cute niece with an exhausted voice. “Unfortunately, that’s just the way this world works. Some people just lack the imagination to understand their position when talking to others. It’s a real nuisance.” Lord Itsuki had a troubled look on his face. He tried to feign a smile, but he did not even manage that.

“How’s it a nuisance?” she asked.

“Well, take someone like Chief Louis. Since he thinks himself superior, he makes some very brazen requests. He casually asks for things that we just can’t provide.”

In this case, his requests included food aid and the village’s sovereignty. While the former one was already quite brazen, the latter one was even worse. It was like he was begging for a luxury mansion in exchange for his pocket money.

“Since I don’t want to rock the boat too much, I’m even prepared to make some small compromises, but people like him usually don’t have any intentions of making concessions. In other words, you can’t negotiate with them,” Lord Itsuki concluded.

“Which leaves you with only one solution...”

That’s right. If they don’t want to talk things through, you’ve got no choice but to rely on force or authority.

“Exactly, that’s why it’s such a nuisance. You’ve got to rely on force if you can’t have a proper discussion, but it’s not something I like doing so easily. It always ends up creating tensions.”

Once you raised your fist, anyone who witnessed it was going to perceive you as a violent person henceforth. And since no one wanted to be on the receiving end of violence, they were going to be constantly on guard, or maybe even prepare to fight back. From there, it did not take much for a fight to break out, so it was in the interest of those wielding the power to resolve conflicts peacefully. Of course, there were exceptions.

Lady Maika enthusiastically nodded along to the explanation. “That makes sense... It’s a considerable drawback if there are rumors about you being violent. Even if it’s justified, you don’t want to use your power on trivial matters. I get it.”

Which raised the question whether it was all right to use force this time. If you followed this logic, it may have been difficult to deal with Chief Louis. However, this time we were only going to make use of reasonable political power and wield it within the confines of the law. The other party had clearly violated the official contract that had been signed between the count and the acting village chief at the time. If he had only requested the plan’s suspension and a review, we may have been able to gloss over the matter, but he had used the classified technology as a hostage to extort resources from us, and that was a crime. In other words, we were only going to resort to force to contain a criminal, and that fell under the banner of maintaining public order. No matter how creative Chief Louis’s point of view may have been, he was going to get crushed because he had defied authority.

“It’s all thanks to Ash making him commit on the spot. Or did he dig his own grave?”

“I think it is the latter. I just reminded him of the problems and confirmed his replies.”

And even then, Chief Louis probably still considered his requests to be reasonable, so there was no other way to put it than saying that he did not understand his position.

Hearing our exasperated sighs, Lady Maika tilted her head in contemplation. “So...you’re saying...this Louis guy really is just stupid? That’s all there is to it?”

That was probably the easiest explanation, so I nodded in agreement.

“Wow... I thought he might have had some intricate plan, but that’s it, huh?” Lady Maika said.

“What kind of intricate plan?” I asked.

“Like a conspiracy with another territory, since he mentioned the classified technology...”

A plot involving spies? Sounds interesting. But there was no need to worry this time around. “Impossible. I would have sensed something was wrong during the past year if it were something that intricate.”

At any rate, I had experience getting assaulted by assassins, so I was aware that secret spies existed in this world. Since we were dealing with highly classified information, I had watched out for anything in that regard. In my opinion, Chief Louis was a small-time crook who only saw the coins in front of his eyes. He was not brave enough to rebel against the count. He had only ended up in that position because he was not aware of the consequences of his actions.

“As the monkey god teaches us, ‘He who stands near the root of a large tree cannot gaze at the sky.’ A mere swindler who wants some change is incapable of devising a plot to turn a whole territory against himself.”

“Oh... Somehow, it feels like we’re missing out. Although it should be a good thing that it can be resolved easily.”

I knew how she felt, but we should keep our disappointment in moderation. The kind of spy action where a single person stops a war probably would have annihilated a village or two. Luckily, the problem this time was only a small-time crook whom we could dispose of with the help of the law.

It took a week to prepare the legal documents necessary to sweep away Chief Louis. During that time, I organized an expeditionary party. Unlike the previous special expedition, we were also going to carry resources with us, so I added everyone to the group, including the patrol squad.

Before even setting off, I already looked forward to our way back, since the former village chief was most likely going to take a seat in one of the wagons.

While painting that picture inside my head, I was checking our cargo one last time together with Lady Renge when Glen suddenly stormed in. “Ash! Something terrible happened!”

“What is going on?”

As I turned around towards Glen’s alarming voice, I realized that it was indeed an extraordinary circumstance. Glen was holding Lady Suiren in his arms. Her hair and clothes were a mess—you could tell at first glimpse that she was exhausted.

“Suiren! Why are you here?”

Lady Renge panicked and shouted louder than I had ever heard her speak. Considering that Lady Suiren was not supposed to be here, that was a natural reaction.

Upon hearing Lady Renge’s voice, Lady Suiren opened her heavy eyelids. “Renge...? And Ash...?”

“Suiren! What happened? Are you... Are you okay?” She timidly grasped Lady Suiren’s hand.

Feeling the warm touch of her friend, whom she had not seen since their fight, Lady Suiren gave an apologetic look and said, “I’m fine... But the village is...”

Glenn handed Lady Suiren over to Lady Renge as the poor girl started shedding tears while whispering into her friend’s ear.

“Suiren said that the village chief sent men into the forest,” Lady Renge said.

“Even though I told them not to go in there barring an emergency...” That parasite had already managed to cause trouble within just one week. Being at my wits’ end, I urged Glen to continue. I did not want to hear it, but I had to know. “Do you know any details?”

“The village chief sent about twenty people to gather food in the forest. Only less than half came back.”

I felt dizzy out of sheer despair. More than ten of my precious human resources, who had learned the newest farming techniques over the past year, had been lost at once. No words could do this tragedy justice.

“What on earth happened?” I barely managed to talk while gnashing my teeth.

It also took Glen a considerable amount of willpower to speak his next words. “They were attacked by treants.”

For a moment, I was left speechless at the appearance of a second demon species, following the werewolf. Was Chief Louis the god of annoyance? Just when I had thought that our conquest of hell was finally coming to an end after diligently working for a whole year, there was a rush of surging waves of danger flooding us. It was too cruel considering all our efforts. It was a dramatic turnaround brought about by general luck snatching away our victory, which had been a result of hard work and camaraderie between the vanguard, sponsor, main troops, and second-in-command. Chief Louis must have indeed been a god. Maybe the god of plague, risen from the depths of hell. Goddess Yuika, may your fortune smile on me!

My prayers were interrupted by the young girl’s sobbing. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry... Please forgive me...”

“Why are you apologizing? You didn’t do anything wrong, Suiren,” Lady Renge said.

Lady Suiren had broken down crying. Now clinging to Lady Renge, who was hugging her, she repented while crying. “No... I mean I’m sorry for saying all those things three years ago...”

Upon hearing the words “three years ago,” Lady Renge immediately understood what she meant, and gently shook her head. “Don’t worry. I don’t mind at all. More importantly...”

“No, no... I finally realized how selfish I was back then.” Lady Suiren recited all that had happened during the past year with tears trickling down her cheeks. “I didn’t know how hard it was to increase the harvest yield. I never considered how precious the food that you shared with us was. I didn’t realize that the thought of everyone dying was this scary... Back then, I didn’t feel anything at all... I didn’t think of all the villagers... I am sorry...”

The girl repeatedly apologized. In her exhaustion, she was desperate to make up for all the spiteful feelings she had harbored these past three years. This stood in contrast with Lady Renge, who had worried about her friend all these years.

Lady Renge tightly hugged her friend while crying. “You’ve turned into a fine leader for your village. I’m proud of you as a friend.”

Upon seeing Lady Renge forgive her friend, I slapped my cheeks to pull myself together. I had prayed enough to Goddess Yuika. At any rate, I faithfully prayed to her every day without fail. But now was the time to act as much as humanly possible. If I did not pull through here, their beautiful tears were going to be sullied with sadness.

“Expedition squad! Listen up! There has been a change of plans!”

Following my command, all the troops fell silent at once and turned towards me, already sensing that something was wrong. They were truly reliable professionals.

“Our objective is no longer to transport food aid to Ajole village, but an emergency response to a treant attack. Our priority is rescuing the villagers. After that, we can come up with a plan to subjugate the treants. Understood?”

After hearing everyone’s “Yes, Sir,” I ordered them to first unpack the food from the wagons so the carriages could drive faster and with enough space inside to evacuate the villagers. We would only carry the absolute minimum food necessary for the squad and villagers.

I sent a messenger to Lord Itsuki and Lady Maika and looked at the two girls.

“Renge, make sure Suiren gets some rest.”

“I-I have to go back to the village too!”

It was not Lady Renge who responded to my instructions, but Lady Suiren. She appeared ready to shake off Renge’s arms at any moment. I met her with a stern look.

“I will go. No matter what.” She had a very determined look on her face.

No one said you can’t come along. “Suiren, please get some rest, even if it is just for a little bit. Once the preparations are done, we will leave. You will be in charge of giving the evacuation orders to the villagers.”

“L-Leave it to me!”

I’m counting on you. After all, I would not be able to properly manage all of that.

In terms of rescuing the villagers, we just had to move as fast as possible, but the problem was subduing the treants. After my fight with the werewolf, I had been preparing by reading up on demon species. Treants appeared to be two-meter-tall humanoid trees—on the outside at least. They were tough-skinned monsters that did not know fatigue, had astounding stamina similar to werewolves, and endlessly kept attacking. They cornered and crushed their enemies with their huge bodies and strength. However, their speed was as slow as one would have expected from a plant. It was thus possible to outrun a single treant. Still, their pursuit was relentless, so they would end up destroying wherever you sought refuge unless it was a heavily guarded encampment.

Since some of the villagers had safely returned from the forest to Ajole, it was to be expected that the treants were going to follow them there. Moreover, the fact that only a minority of the villagers had returned suggested that there were not just a couple but a considerable amount of treants lurking inside the forest.

“How can we drive them back?”

The treants’ weak point was their head. Unlike the werewolves’ absurd head anatomy, it appeared that treants would die from an injury to their brain. A plant with a brain? Yes, indeed. Treants had brains. They may have looked like humanoid trees, but that was only their armor. Inside were corpses of anthropoid apes such as macaques and gorillas.

The species called treant were in fact not plants that had defied all logic and learned to walk; they were plants that had taken over animal corpses and moved them around. Either way, they defied logic. The fantasy concepts in this world really did not favor humanity at all. Still, treants stopped moving once the corpse’s head suffered damage, so all you had to do was aim for the head.

The problem was their extremely sturdy bark armor. It was almost impossible for a normal longbow to pierce it. According to the literature, you could deal with it by making them fall over and repeatedly bashing them with an ax. The best way to deal with them appeared to be the ballista. Unfortunately, we could not transport one of those to a remote village in a timely manner.

“Hm... Bashing in their skulls it is, then.”

I had an idea, although I was not sure how effective it would be. I went to one of the now-empty carriages and talked to the driver. “Can you please take me to Quid’s shop? I am going to buy a weapon to deal with the treants.”

Hopefully this was going to work.

Suiren’s Perspective

“Suiren, can you drink this? Chef Yacoo thought soup might be better since you’re tired, so he made some for you.”

My childhood friend, whom I had severely hurt three years ago, treated me so kindly, as if nothing had ever happened. Or rather, I should say despite everything that had happened. She held out a spoon with a gentle smile that I had never seen before. I couldn’t believe that Renge, who had always walked behind me, had grown this strong.

“I’m sorry, Renge. I really am.”

“It’s okay. You don’t have to apologize. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Even if she said so, there were still so many things that I hadn’t apologized for. It was not about her forgiving me or not. I had so many things that I needed to say. As my thoughts were running wild and I fell silent, Renge tightly grasped my hand. The same hand that I had pushed away on that day now handed me a warm bowl of soup. We both held on to it.

“You shouldn’t apologize, Suiren.”

“I-I shouldn’t?”

“Yes. You’re in charge of Ajole village after all. There are so many other things you should be doing instead of apologizing to your friend.”

I felt like crying again upon hearing her say those words. I lost count of how many times I had cried after thinking I had no more tears left. She was still calling me her friend even though I had hurt her so severely.

I firmly grasped the bowl and smiled instead of saying sorry. “Thanks. I actually haven’t eaten for a whole day...”

“There’s more in the kitchen, so let me know if you want more. You can have as much as you want. Oh, but Chef Yacoo said that if you suddenly eat too much it might be bad for your body, so in moderation, okay?”

“Yeah, thanks.” Really, thank you so much. For extending your hand on that day.

Now I understood. I had been able to just about persist because you had reached out to me on that day. I had known all along that I was wrong because you had gazed at me even though I had hurt you on that day. When Ash had dragged me around, I was able to pull through because of Glen’s support and because I knew that I had been wrong. And now you had answered my shameless call for help by firmly grasping my hand again.

“I’ll make sure to do my best from here on out.” For the sake of Renge, who hadn’t abandoned me. And so that one day I would be able to proudly call her my friend again. Right now, I was still too embarrassed to say it. “First, I need to evacuate Ajole’s residents. I’ll do everything in my power to get them to safety.”

“I know you can do it.”

Renge’s words were filled with confidence. They were not just empty phrases or an attempt to put my mind at ease. Could there have been something about my current self that made her so confident? Maybe she was onto something.

“Yeah, I’ll get it done. Compared to Ash’s lessons, this is child’s play.”

Ash had dragged me around for a whole year. Some measly treants couldn’t be any worse. This past year had been really tough and painful, but it had also been a really important year, which I managed to overcome together with all the other villagers. Those efforts fueled a fire burning deep inside my chest.

“Just watch me, Renge. I won’t let something like this stop me.”

“Of course. I’m always watching you, Suiren.”

We smiled at each other before I tried the soup she had so graciously brought me.

“It’s tomato soup! It’s delicious!”

My face lit up. Tomatoes had secretly become one of my favorite vegetables after Ash had made me try them last summer.

“It seems that Chef Yacoo and Ash have been studying tomatoes, drying and concentrating them in an effort to make them last longer,” Renge explained.

“Ash really has his hands in everything. Even though he must have been pretty busy just looking after us.”

“You’re right. Ash is not just a hard worker, but he also has a lot of consideration for others, and he’s very passionate...”

My childhood friend’s face blossomed like a flower in the spring sun when talking about Ash. Was he really the kind of charming person to warrant such a cute reaction?

●　●　●

Ajole village was silent when we arrived in the early morning, following a night march. Amidst their exhaustion, the expedition squad—or rather, emergency response team—let out a sigh of relief seeing that the village was still fine. The treants’ slow speed was a blessing.

The response team was organized into two groups. The first one was the speed-focused combat squad, mainly made up of soldiers on horseback. The second one consisted mostly of the wagons that were tasked with escorting the villagers to safety. Lady Suiren, who had the most important role of urging the villagers to escape, accompanied the former group as they were leading the charge. More precisely, she was riding a horse together with Glen. Both of them had an excessively stiff and blank expression on their face due to their first shared ride together, even though we were right in the midst of an emergency. In consideration of their restraint, I decided not to investigate their inner thoughts.

As soon as we arrived at the village, Lady Suiren dismounted with Glen’s help and raised her voice in the center of the village.

“Everyone! It’s me, Suiren! I’ve brought help! You don’t have to worry anymore! Please come out and listen!”

As her voice resounded, the villagers came out of their homes with pale faces. In the meantime, I dispatched some of the guards towards the forest. They would inform us if any treants appeared, so we could run away immediately. While there was indeed a combat squad, without any preparations they would have been unable to put up a fight against a group of treants.

“What? My father’s not here? Wh-Where did he go?”

Talking to some of the villagers, whose face had regained some color, Lady Suiren covered her mouth in surprise. It appeared the god of plague had manifested himself again.

“Um, Ash... I’m embarrassed to say this, but...my father—the village chief—has left the village.”

“Oh?”

It was not as bad as I had expected. If the current village chief was absent, Lady Suiren’s instructions would be harder to oppose. Now the question was, where had he gone? If he stayed true to his principles as a small-time crook...

“Did he leave by himself?” I asked.

“Apparently. Ah, well, he told everyone that they needed to take refuge in Adele village and...some villagers followed him.”

“‘Some’ followed him?”

Surveying the faces of the villagers, who had assembled in the public square, I got an idea of who was missing.

“Putting aside those who entered the forest, could it be that those were the same people that did not like doing farm work?”

Several of the villagers confirmed my suspicion.

I see. That probably works in our favor. “In that case, there is no problem.”

You really never knew what could lead to a good outcome in this world. It might slightly inconvenience Adele village, but I was confident that Chief Marco was capable of taking them in for a little while.

I nodded towards Lady Suiren. “Suiren, in the name of His Excellency the Count of Sacula, you are now officially in charge of Ajole village. Please use your authority to give evacuation orders to the villagers.”

“Y-Yes, understood!” Clenching her fist in front of her chest, Lady Suiren asserted in a loud voice. She radiated a strong confidence she had not had a year ago. The girl directed that confidence towards the villagers. “Everyone! Please prepare to leave the village!”

The villagers’ reaction was stiff and cold, but that was to be expected. All those who had remained here had refused Chief Louis’s proposal to evacuate. While Chief Louis’s nonexistent popularity may have been a factor in their decision, the villagers simply did not want to leave behind this village and their land.

“I know how you all feel. When Adele village proposed that we migrate three years ago, I felt the same. I didn’t want to leave the village. I didn’t want to get separated from everyone.”

Lady Suiren’s shivering shoulders expressed her lingering regret, but she made an effort to suppress her emotions. She was strong enough to know that she found herself in a position where she could not afford to show any weakness.

“Why did we feel that way three years ago? Until a year ago, we barely survived each day. We had no food. We were starving. And yet we didn’t want to leave the village. Because we liked this place? Because we wanted to stay together?”

One by one, the villagers nodded in agreement with the girl’s account of their shared circumstances. They started to accept their new leader.

“To a degree, yes. But most of all, we were...afraid. We didn’t know how we were going to live our lives outside this village. We didn’t know who was going to stay by our side once we got separated. We thought that this was the only place where we could keep on living.” Her following words negated her former self’s doubts. “But we are different now. Remember what we did over the past year. Did we suffer from hunger? Did we wait for someone to save us?”

Upon hearing her questions, the villagers looked at each other and nodded. Those gestures were filled with pride for their achievements from the past year.

“That’s right. We know it better than anyone else. Right now, we can survive on our own even if we leave this village. We were the ones who restored our ruined fields to their former glory. We have all the skills necessary.” The leader faced towards me. “And let’s not forget that there are people who helped us this past year, just like three years ago there were people who helped us. Even if we leave this village, there are people who will stay by our side.”

I reacted to her words with a bow to show my respect. Her speech was so passionate that I felt like thanking her.

“We no longer have to be afraid of anything. So let’s leave this village behind!”

The repeated proposal didn’t cause any commotion this time around.

“I don’t want to lose you. And I’m not saying that out of my own insecurities. I’ve grown to cherish each and everyone of you, so I don’t want a single person to die.” Lady Suiren took a breath before issuing the order. “That’s why I am ordering you as Ajole’s chief to get ready to leave this village behind!”

All the villagers shouted in affirmation of Chief Suiren’s orders. Their voices were so loud that they drowned out any doubts.

The villagers loaded all the luggage they could carry onto the second squad’s wagons and set off towards Itsutsu city. Chief Suiren lowered her head in regret as she sat in the wagon at the tail end.

“I’m sorry for putting all of you in danger because of my village’s problems,” she said.

Upon hearing her commendable apology, someone from the remaining combat squad whistled. I was not sure whether it was someone from the patrol squad or Sir George’s troops. Either way, I heard some cheerful banter behind my back, and one of the new recruits from Sir George’s troops was pushed forward. Naturally, as the commanding officer, I had to take a strict attitude in regard to pranks among the troops.

“Glen, if you have anything to say, I will allow you to speak.”

“Me? N-No... I mean, they just pushed—”

“Glen, please follow my instructions and be more articulate.”

“Um...”

Glen, who was a little flustered after suddenly being pushed into the spotlight, noticed Chief Suiren’s look and cleared his throat.

“Ah, yes... You don’t have to worry, Chief Suiren. It is the solemn duty of the regional troops and knights to protect citizens like you with our swords.”

That sounded pretty smooth. With a grin on my face, I silently glimpsed at the middle-aged men behind me, who were also smirking. Watch and learn, everyone. This was how you made someone fall for you. Or I should probably say “fall for you again.” This would provide enough banter for the next couple of drinking parties!

“Ahem. I concur with our comrade-in-arms Glen, whom many revere as a knight among knights. Leave the rest to us,” I proclaimed.

“No one’s ever called me that...”

Stay quiet, Glen. “Well then, Chief Suiren. Let us meet again later in the city.”

“Yes. Please stay safe, everyone.”

Chief Suiren folded her hands to pray. She kept praying even after the horse carriage had started moving and drove out of sight.

“Did you see how frantically she prayed, you bastards? Now we’ve got to stay alive for the honor of the gods,” a soldier said.

As I looked over my shoulder, I saw the bald-headed Sergeant Roland burst into laughter. His eyes seemed a little red. While he may have looked tough on the outside, he was in fact a very sensitive guy.

Since the mood was exceedingly bright despite our current dangerous situation, I did my best as commander to keep it that way. “He is right. In particular, a certain someone needs to stay alive, or the Church will lose its authority.”

Everyone’s eyes fixated on that certain someone and we all started laughing at once. Except for that certain someone.

All the villagers had been safely evacuated. And there was more good news. According to the initial report, only a handful of people had returned out of the twenty who had entered the forest, but it turned out that later some more people had returned here and there. Eleven villagers had found their way back after initially getting lost due to confusion as they were being chased by the treants. They were earnest workers who had put effort into their farm work and shown a spirit of solidarity. It appeared that, even as they had been chased by the treants, they had made sure to run away in smaller groups. In a desperate situation, where they had been attacked by demons in an unfamiliar forest, they had managed to survive by encouraging each other and sharing their wisdom.

Among them were several ambitious villagers who had learned the fundamentals of tracking in the woods by accompanying Glen whenever he foraged the forest in an attempt to increase the village’s food supplies—even if only by a little bit—on his trips as a messenger. Those skills had significantly increased their survival rate. Most likely it was also thanks to them running around the forest that the treants’ attack on the village had been delayed. Some god must have been watching over Glen’s single-minded devotion.

“This is a high achievement, Glen.”

“Not at all. It’s all thanks to you.”

“Do not be absurd! It is thanks to your effort to help the village even further while you were already busy carrying out the difficult task of being the messenger.”

Thanks to Glen, most of my precious personnel had made it back. He could not imagine how happy I was.

Glen just smiled and scratched his head. “I just did as I should, helping wherever I could, as you said. Without you, I wouldn’t have known my way around the forest or even looked for something that I could do on my own to help. You really live up to the name of ‘Phoenix,’ Ash.”

Glen was humble, emphasizing that he still had a long way to go. What a truly nice guy. Even after a great achievement, he still held an invigorating desire to improve himself.

Encouraged by the good news, the combat squad started to take up their battle positions. Since relentless pursuit was in the treants’ nature, I wanted to repel them here if possible. It was easy to outrun them with the horse carriages, but it also meant trouble if they followed us all the way to the city. While Itsutsu city had sturdy stone walls, it was not unheard for a city like that to fall to a group of demons.

It would have been even worse if those treants decided to spearhead an attack on Adele village. Itsutsu city had the best defenses in the whole territory, but Adele did not. The abundant village would be at risk of annihilation. Therefore, we were going to engage the treants here, so that they would see the combat squad as their top-priority targets. And ideally, we were going to exterminate them all.

“Come to think of it, was it the treants’ fault that the forest seemed so strange?” Glen murmured next to me as he wiped the sweat off his forehead.

“Most likely, yes. The treants must have chased away the larger animals and some of those ended up attacking Adele village. That would make sense.”

“What a mess.”

“Indeed.”

While we were digging holes, the people around us destroyed some of the private houses and used the scrap wood to build simple walls. I was a bit worried, since none of them were real military engineers, but even their DIY constructs should give some protection. Regardless, even if they did not hold, we still had our secret weapon from Mr. Quid—the spirit lamp. It may not have served its original purpose, but unexpectedly, the spirit lamp may end up being our savior. I did not know how I could thank Mr. Quid for this. I’ll try developing a promising new product for him.

Not knowing when the treants would attack, we silently prepared for battle. Suddenly, one of the guards who had been watching the forest rushed over with a sense of urgency on his face. Everyone knew what he was going to say. They knew it, but still fell silent and looked at him to hear the words spoken.

“We spotted treants inside the forest. They are heading towards us. I could make out eight of them with my bare eyes.”

Some of my tension released when I heard that their numbers were not in the double digits, although that was not certain yet. Eight was only the number of those who had been spotted currently. There may have been more of them deeper inside the forest—I needed to stay alert. Even eight treants did not equal an easy victory. I looked up at the red sky. Dusk was falling.

“How long will it take them to get here?”

“At their current speed, it will probably be one hour until they get here.”

“So after sunset then.”

That was a disadvantage for us humans who did not function as well in the dark. I wondered what it was like for the treants. Were they active at night? And what senses did they use to track down the villagers? Did they follow their footprints? Or their scent? Either way, a feat like that required highly precise sensory organs. For now, it was better to assume that they could freely move at night.

“Prepare the torches and fire arrows. If possible, set up the torches at regular intervals on the treants’ path. That way we can infer the distance even in the dark.”

As long as I had a sense of distance, I could show off my abilities. Ever since the fight with the werewolf, my five senses had sharpened.

“We will shoot the fire arrows at the treants to mark them.”

In response to my command, barrels with Quid’s company seal—the phoenix seal to be accurate—were unloaded off the wagons. The barrels were filled with pitch, a tarry substance that could be extracted by fractionally distilling tar. It was highly flammable, perfect for torches and our fire arrows.

The pitch barrels rolled up one next to the other. Mr. Quid’s company had saved them up as by-products from their spirit-lamp fuel production and provided them to us now. Later on, I was supposed to pay him back from the regional military budget. I already felt alarmed about how much it was going to be.

What to do? It gave me a headache as a member of Sir George’s staff, which was in charge of the military budget. In addition, I had also brought leftover porcelain bottles from the laboratory and the Quid company. And while they were leftovers, they were still somewhat pricey, intensifying my headache even further. This is no good. I was putting too much pressure on the territory’s finances. I had to either restrain myself a bit more or come up with a new money-making scheme. If only I had more money.

As I was caught up in my human greed for money, which seemed to exist no matter the world, Ajole village had been wrapped up in the mantle of night. From the other side—from the depths of the dark, gloomy forest—reverberated heavy footsteps.

“Oh, what impressive marching music.”

The timbre stimulated my imagination to such a degree that I found myself unconsciously impressed. Several low frequencies were creeping up from the depths of the night. No shapes could be seen, but the marching sounds signaling their imminent approach were like a tune designed to instigate fear.

It had been the right call to evacuate the villagers. If we had needed to protect the villagers amidst this sound, it would have probably required all our concentration to calm down their panic. Luckily, everyone present was a guard or knight—they were not only professional fighters here in this world, but also well versed in dealing with demons. While they may still have been scared, none of them were so weak that they would have been consumed by their fears.

I turned to them with a smile. “Once we get back to the city, we need to tell the playwrights and bards about this marching tune. It is so impressive that I would love to hear it re-enacted on a stage.”

From a small turret attached to one of the houses, I surveyed the combat squad. Some of them stood on a turret similar to mine with their bows readied, and others were in the shade of their bulwarks made of scrap wood. They looked up at me as if they had seen the sun rise in the middle of the night. That was not exactly the reaction that I had expected.

“Hey, sounds like our commander’s already thinking about our triumphant return.”

“He’s got to be pretty confident in his plan.”

“Obviously. Our adjutant’s a child prodigy who earned himself the nickname ‘Phoenix.’”

“You guys from the patrol squad may have only seen him do farm work, but don’t underestimate him. Our Sir Adjutant is a werewolf slayer who earned the silver battle medal.”

Upon hearing the praise from Sir George’s troops, the patrol squad voiced their admiration.

I didn’t kill the werewolf though.

Ignoring my attempt to correct them, everyone started chatting in a cheerful mood.

“Now that you mention it, our commander is the Phoenix, Ash.”

“I completely forgot after seeing his splendid work in the fields.”

“On that subject, the villagers who were attacked by the treants also managed to come back alive in the end. That must have been thanks to the power of the phoenix.”

Definitely not. Such a power doesn’t exist.

“We’ve got to fight with all we have.”

“Agreed. The bards will sing about us! We can’t do anything that’ll make us look bad.”

“And they may even write a play! We’ll be so popular at the tavern.”

There was another uproar. I did not really know what was going on, and it seemed full of misunderstandings, but it appeared that their morale had jumped through the roof. It seemed that the professional fighters had been more nervous than anticipated. My bad for not noticing.

Maybe I was just too optimistic. Even if we failed, we could still become a decoy as long as we made contact with the treants. Then we could pull them away and wait for reinforcements from the city.

At the moment, they were preparing two types of reinforcements in the city. The first one was the final line of defense for the city and the second one was a strike force that would try and eliminate the threat before it could even reach the city. Of course, it would be much more convenient if we managed to repel them here. However, that was pretty much impossible—at least according to Sir George and Lord Itsuki. They told us not to do anything rash and come back after buying some time.

For the time being, I was going to attempt my strategy. I gave a signal to the archers standing on the turrets and picked up a fire arrow myself. The giants clad in wooden armor had already come within shooting range. This was my first time seeing a treant. They were huge and extremely bulky. They looked less like a monkey or a gorilla in armor and more like a figure in a powered exoskeleton straight out of a science-fiction movie.

The tree armor did not look like planks that had been artificially assembled together but more like branches and roots entangled around the flesh. If I had not known what was inside, I probably would have assumed that it was a walking tree. Their movements were as slow as I had heard, making them easy targets for our arrows.

Since my physique had improved, I had become able to use a fairly strong bow. Straining my back, I drew the bowstring to its limit before releasing it again. When the arrow struck its target, it appeared to be floating midair, since the treant’s figure was concealed by the darkness of the night.

“They really are an easy target.”

The floating arrow started moving again ever so slowly, in tandem with the treant’s head.

“All right, keep shooting them.”

As I readied my next arrow, the other archers also took several shots in succession. Some of their arrows missed or did not properly get stuck, but since our targets were bulky giant creatures, most of them hit. Eventually, the treants’ entire bodies caught on fire, making their movements visible in the dark. There were indeed just eight of them, just as the guard had reported. Just in case, I still paid attention to our surroundings, but I was not able to see any other treants.

“Looks like we will be fighting eight of them. Time to start the operation.”

I whistled with my fingers to signal the end of our fire-arrow assault. Now it was time to intercept the treants near the village entrance. The following step was crucial to the success of our operation, so depending on the outcome, I may end up sounding the retreat whistle. Even I started to feel a bit nervous.

The treants’ vanguard walked towards the lowest wall. It was not clear whether it was intentionally aiming at a weak spot or if it was just instinctively drawn towards an area where people had gathered. Considering that the treants were marching in a column, which was not exactly a formation suited for battle, it was most likely the latter. Although that may have just been wishful thinking on my part.

Wondering which explanation applied, I followed their movements. They were probably coming after me. To make sure of it, I shot another fire arrow to lead them towards me. I was not sure how effective this was, but the treants’ vanguard was about five steps away from trampling me, so it must have done something.

The treants moved forward to close in on me—and fell over. Yes, they fell. Just like anyone would have if their sluggish feet suddenly got caught up in logs rolling in from the side. Even a treant was not safe from falling logs. As a cloud of dust rose up together with a loud bang, the men who had fulfilled their mission hastily fell back. From the sides, those brave men had upended wagons loaded with logs, effectively making the treants fall over. I called it “treant on the logs.”

Although I said logs, they were essentially just central pillars pulled from the village’s disassembled houses. The central pillars and the wagons had been turned upside down by the giants’ fall, but they had fulfilled their role. For a moment, it felt as if the pillars—which had supported the houses over many long years—showed some resentment. Must have been my imagination.

In any case, I ran up to the treant that had fallen face first until I got close enough to throw a porcelain bottle at it without missing. This porcelain bottle was filled with pitch, and the old cloth stuck in its opening was on fire. As you may have already guessed, I was about to throw a Molotov cocktail. If this operation went smoothly maybe I could rename it the “treant cocktail.”

Several guards with the same task followed my lead and energetically threw their Molotov cocktails at its head. It was a guilty pleasure to listen to the sound of the bottles breaking as the treant’s head caught on fire. As expected, it went up in flames. On the outside, the treants looked like trees, so it was only natural to attack with fire weapons when considering their possible weaknesses. Especially as far as traditional fantasy settings go.

However, even if they looked like trees, they were living organisms—they were not going to burn as easily as dried wood. I wondered how long it was going to take for them to turn into charcoal. Therefore, the Molotov cocktail’s goal was not to kill them by burning them alive. This operation focused on the treants’ heads as their weak points, and the brain was the most important organ inside the head. I assumed that once you destroyed their brains, they would die. There should not have been any organisms that could survive without their brains, but Sir Werewolf had proven that that was not necessarily true.

Be that as it may, when it came to the parasitic treant, who lived thanks to the corpses of animals, they should have died once their host’s brain was destroyed. Or at least they were going to be incapacitated. Still, how could I destroy the brain? It was not possible to carry a ballista all the way here. There was no telling how much damage small impacts from axes and spears could do. Therefore, I decided to rely on fire.

Fire burned through consuming oxygen from its surroundings. In other words, it deprived its surroundings of oxygen. What happened if you covered the treants’ heads in fire? It would cut off the oxygen supply to any organism breathing inside that head. And if it ran out of oxygen, the organism was going to suffocate. Yes, my goal was to asphyxiate the treants with fire. Although, I had no idea how they preserved the corpse’s brain, so I was not too confident of my plan’s success. It would not have been strange at all if they did not need any oxygen. They were demons after all. However, since records stated that treants could be defeated by destroying the head, there must have been some physical limits related to its host body. Or were there?

While I was observing the treant whose head was in flames in front of my eyes, it silently stood up without any groans or other signs of struggle. What an unfortunate result. However, just as I was considering retreat, the treant that had sluggishly raised its upper body fell over once again. This time it seemed to stop moving altogether.

“Did we succeed?”

Just in case, I needed to experiment on a second specimen. Time for our second treant on the logs. With a thump, the second treant fell over abruptly and suffered a concentrated assault of Molotov cocktails. It was probably safe to assume that they were not particularly intelligent. Their movements were slow, and their mindless pursuit of their prey resembled a zombie. Come to think of it, zombies and the undead were also weak to fire. My mind was preoccupied with trivial thoughts as we turned the second treant’s head into a ball of flames.

In conclusion, treants were weak to fire. Good, I can work with that. The log-and-Molotov combo allowed us to keep our blockade intact up until the third treant, but in the meantime the other treants had steadily advanced, reaching our improvised bulwark. While I had hoped that it would slow them down a little bit in their tracks, the treants demonstrated superhuman strength in complete contrast to their dull movements. They destroyed the bulwarks as they pushed on with sluggish momentum.

“They are stronger than expected. We need to abandon the first encampment!”

I started worrying about the rest of the operation. On my whistling signal, the combat squad abandoned all unnecessary equipment and retreated towards the other side of the village. They were followed by the sound of the treants’ heavy footsteps. While their path was mostly lit up by torches placed in advance, it was also dotted with dark areas from the demolished houses’ scrap wood. Anxious to find out if anyone was hurt, I hurried towards the rendezvous point.

“Is everyone safe? No one hurt or missing?”

While keeping an eye on the treants, Sergeant Roland performed a roll call before replying with a delighted look on his face. “No one is missing, sir. Several people were slightly injured by the bulwark’s splinters, but otherwise everyone is fine.”

“I am relieved to hear that. Thank you for your concise report.”

“Yes, sir. You can count on me. This is easier than inspecting the warehouse.” After all, unlike the equipment, the soldiers replied when you called their name.

Now then, it was time for the operation’s second and final phase. Due to time and resource constraints, I had been unable to come up with anything more intricate.

“From here on out, we are going to split up. Do you all remember your pairs? Does everyone have a torch? And do you remember the final rendezvous point?”

The troops took out their torches and clearly affirmed my questions. They really were very reliable professional fighters.

“One last thing. Do not do anything reckless just to complete the mission. We are not cornered, and this is not a do-or-die operation. The villagers have already been escorted to safety, so there is no point in fighting to the death. This is just a little bonus mission.”

Even if we failed, we just had to skirmish with the treants and lead them in front of the city’s ballistae. Sir George should have already been preparing for that unlikely scenario.

“Please remember that your lives are more important than this bonus mission’s success. You are all exceptionally talented people. Are you ready?”

The professional fighters all replied with an enthusiastic “yes” before forming pairs and moving to their positions.

“Ash, you’re really great at dealing with people.” My partner, Glen, smiled with a torch in his hand.

“You think so?”

“Your speech just now easily relieved their tension from the destroyed bulwark.”

“They were nervous? It may have been a bit early, but it was expected that the bulwark would fall. Everything is going according to plan.”

“Still, it’s a bit scary... Although you seem fine.”

“I mean, we can always just run away if things go wrong.”

It was important to have a reliable backup. As such, a tactical victory could never upset a strategic victory.

“Are you ready to go, Glen?”

“Yes, let’s brace ourselves.”

The treants had pursued us all the way to the center of the village square. With steps larger yet also clumsier than human ones, they followed the soldiers that were scattered all over the square, ignoring the paths indicated by the torches. Or rather, they tried to follow them but failed. Away from the well-lit paths, it was extremely difficult for them to get a foothold due to piles of jumbled scrap wood and dug-up holes. The treants’ sluggish movements grew even duller until they fell over.

At the same time, the dispersed troops laughed at the confused treants while lighting up the piles of scrap wood and ditches filled with pitch surrounding them. In a chain reaction, the burning red flames spread from the center to the outer edges. Eventually, the fire reached the bulwarks surrounding the village square and imprisoned the slow-footed treants inside a ring of fire. I’m sorry to have kept you waiting. Here is the fire attack you ordered.

It was an orthodox plan. First, using a disposable site as our encampment, we had lured in the enemy by pretending to be overwhelmed. Then we ignited the combustible material we had set all over the site beforehand, catching the whole herd with one move. Even I could carry out a foolproof plan like that. For the rest, the combat squad just had to meet up at the rendezvous point and observe how efficient the fire was.

While we had made sure that it would burn well, the fire was now raging to a degree where you could feel the heat even at our meeting point further away. The plan had aimed to suffocate the treants to death, but this heat may have been able to just burn them down. Maybe we had used a little too much fuel. Still, better than failing, just a very expensive lifesaver. I really need to make some more money.

“The fire is burning nicely.”

I wondered how long it was going to continue. And how much of the treants’ corpses were going to remain. If possible, I wanted to recover them and study the demons’ biology.

As I was overcome with the looming feeling that we might have to stay here until the morning, a black shadow jumped out of the flames. It was keen and nimble, quite unlike the treants. Charging towards us, the clearly hostile creature interrupted our break.

“Everyone, disperse!”

While giving out orders, I shot an arrow with my bow. Despite the target’s speed, my arrow hit its head. However, my skill was impeccable but meaningless. The mysterious shadow did not even flinch and raised its arms ready to thrust.

“Ash!”

This must have been Glen calling my name. I lightly waved my bow to let him know that I had dodged the attack. Still, rather than letting him know that I was safe, I was busy trying to figure out our enemy’s identity. The flames’ backlight had concealed it from my sight, but I slowly started seeing it. Its bulky, muscular body was hideously burnt, but you could see remains of black hair. Its head—from which my arrow protruded—was wrapped in a scorched wooden helmet.

“Oh? Is this by any chance a treant’s inside?”

It was still possible that this was a gorilla-shaped something that had escaped the fire, but the wooden helmet immediately made me think it was related to the treants. It was unlikely that any wild animal had been accidentally caught up inside the fire ring. It made more sense to think of it as a treant that had become nimbler after taking off its wooden body armor.

As I pondered its identity, it released a war cry from inside its helmet before charging at me again.

“You are fast!”

I evaded its bludgeon-like arms while throwing away my bow and drawing my sword. Its incredible speed made it hard to believe that this was the same treant that had moved slower than a turtle just moments ago. How heavy was its wooden exoskeleton? Was it like a training weight?

While its repeated arm swings were fast and could have easily ended the fight with a single blow, its large size made it easy to predict the trajectory. As Lady Maika’s practice partner, I could not possibly let myself get hit by such an obvious attack pattern. Initially, I was surprised when the presumed treant had jumped out of the flames, but it seemed like I could manage the situation.

After evading one of its side blows, I stepped forward and slashed its feet. I had intended for everyone to gang up on it once it fell over, but the presumed treant prevented its fall by pushing its arms against the ground. Not only that, it also turned around and launched another attack together with a war cry.

“You really have become quick and agile.” And learned how to roar. The treants earlier didn’t do that either.

Its unforgiving wild instincts were the complete opposite of its earlier mindless, zombie-like movements. Maybe its limiter had been removed after purging itself of its armor. Come to think of it, none of the other treants smelled like putrefaction either, despite carrying around corpses. Maybe the wooden mantle that appeared like an armor or exoskeleton actually was a storage container for preserving corpses. Rather than its movements being slow due to its weight, it may have been intentionally conserving energy. Extremely interesting. Now if only my life weren’t in danger. According to my past-life memories, similar medical technology had existed in my previous life. A life-prolonging nanomachine that was used to treat progressive diseases.

I slashed its limbs multiple times while the other members of the unit backed me up by hitting it with their spears and swords from all sides, but the presumed treant did not seem to mind at all. It barely bled and did not seem to feel any pain, which may just have been its inherent traits as a corpse. We made no progress by slightly grazing its thick skin. We needed to go for the head. However, that head was well-protected by a wooden helmet. Since we had no Molotov cocktails left, we had to rely on our spears and swords to destroy it. If only we had a chainsaw. But there was no use in lamenting the lack of a tool that did not yet exist. I had to make up for life’s inconveniences by taking a risk.

“I will somehow make it fall over. Once there is an opening, bash in its head!”

I waited for the right timing while evading the presumed treant’s stout arms. It had already been established that I could not bring it down with a shallow slash, so I had to get in a strong blow. Naturally that required a large swing and stable footing, which made it difficult to evade any counterattacks... Maybe I should just let it go after all. There was no need to court danger.

Just when I was ready to retreat, the presumed treant missed his swing and lost its balance.

“This is my chance.”

As I had not yet officially canceled the operation, I did not lose any time to grasp this much anticipated opportunity and put all my weight into a heavy blow on the enemy’s knees. It was a critical hit that smashed the presumed treant’s knees into bits and pieces. Unfortunately, my feeling of accomplishment was immediately followed by regret. As I had feared, the presumed treant did not have any sense of pain and did not seem to mind his knee injury. It propped its upper body up with its left hand while going for a full swing with the right one.

“Oh, whoa!”

I did not manage to get out of the way in time. I crossed my arms in defense and ducked under the presumed treant. I managed to evade a direct blow from his strong arm, but in return it clotheslined me. I was lying on the ground. The fight had been going on for so long that I was starting to break out into a cold sweat. After being thrown on the ground, I somehow rolled over. I assumed a defensive position and looked out for the enemy—it apparently had fallen over. That was no surprise considering that it had carried out a full swing with broken knees. Everything’s going according to plan. Although my right arm and torso creaked, and I’m covered in cold sweat! And I’m in terrible pain!

“Aim for the head!”

I squeezed out a command while striking the ground to suppress my pain. On my cue, all those fighters who always boasted of their own strength threw themselves headfirst onto the presumed treant. From there on, everyone ganged up on it. The presumed treant swung its arms around in resistance, but its knee injury prevented it from mustering any real strength. It could no longer move properly. Eventually, the troops pinned down its arms, leaving it helpless. At last, their swords swung down upon its head.

Glen held his large sword above his head, then swung it down with full force onto the presumed treant, piercing its cervical vertebrae.

“How’s that!”

In response to Glen’s shout, the enemy’s huge body violently bounced up before presenting some weaker convulsions.

“You’re still not done? How about this, then!” Glen trampled on its head while swinging his sword again.

Before the blade hit, a frail voice sounded from inside the wooden helmet. “Well done...young sapling...” I tilted my head in puzzlement. Unlike its earlier roar, I could understand its words. “Young sapling...I...”

With a muffled sound, Glen’s sword cut off the presumed treant’s head.

“Wai—”

I was curious about what it was trying to say, but even a demon would not have been able to speak without its vocal cords. That was physically impossible. And yet in the next moment, I heard the following words ring inside my ears together with a headache-inducing high-pitched noise.

“Come to me...when the time is ripe...young sapling... I entrust you.”

Why did random fantasy elements keep appearing at the weirdest times? Although it felt more like a horror story when an image of a map with a marked spot suddenly flashed into my mind.

Itsuki’s Perspective

Itsutsu’s city wall had become a symbol of protection for the citizens of Sacula. It was proof that this territory had repelled countless dangers and protected its citizens. I stood atop this city wall, glaring into the direction where Ash and his men had set off for battle. Beside me, a ragged Sacula flag fluttered in the wind. It was yet another symbol. In fact, it was a family heirloom, the so-called “first generation flag” that the first count had planted into this ground. It represented Sacula’s invincibility and all the hardships it had overcome since the time of the first count. When hoisting this flag, we declared that we weren’t going to back down at all and we were going to win this fight. This connected us to all our ancestors who had lived here.

The sky had become brighter. Dawn was breaking. I wondered what Ash and his men were up to right now. They just had to safely run away. We were fully prepared. The troops led by Baleas must have been midway en route to Ajole village by now, ready to counterattack. No matter how many treants there were, this city wall was not going to fall. It never had until now and it wasn’t going to in the future either. Today would be no exception.

That’s why I beg you, Ash. Don’t do anything reckless.

As I was praying, I saw a horse shrouded in a cloud of dust in the distance. Must have been a messenger. The other guards, who were keeping watch on the city wall, raised their voices. Now we were going to find out what had happened. Since Ash was in charge, nothing too bad could have happened. Nevertheless, I felt a tightness in my throat and had difficulty swallowing my saliva.

Ash was insane. He managed to exterminate eight treants. How crazy is that? I remembered him saying “If it is possible, I will take care of it myself,” before leaving the city behind. We had all admired his figure as he had rode ahead. It was a dashing departure that eased the worries of all those present who saw him off. But some people—Baleas, Rihn, and Yae—had noticed that he was completely serious. And the messenger just earlier relayed the report of the treants’ annihilation in Ash’s words, which were “It was possible, so I took care of it myself.”

It was crazy how from beginning to end Ash didn’t seem to be afraid of death at all. Even the guards that had remained in the city had prepared for the worst and left a will with their families. That was in fact a pretty standard procedure. I guess I’ll have to give him another silver medal...

Not that I minded. That was a good thing. It was an unfortunate outcome for Ajole village, but the villagers were all safe. That alone was already a huge victory and cause for celebration, so I had no problem giving him a medal.

However, it made me extremely sad to think that all my groundwork to confer knighthood upon Ash ended up being useless. Although it was not really my cup of tea, I had socialized with all kinds of people to make sure I could appoint a young farmer boy a knight. But none of that was necessary anymore now that he had taken care of eight treants. Everything would be solved by pointing towards his achievements and saying, “Why not him?”

“I wonder if I’ve done something wrong.” I always paid respect to my ancestors.

Uncharacteristically, my personal maid, Ran, sent me a sympathetic look upon hearing my murmur. Although she seemed to be more focused on the wine in her hand. I couldn’t blame her for prioritizing the celebratory high-grade wine over my consolation. I did so myself, so who was I to judge her?

“Well, let’s look at the positive side. It will be less likely for any unforeseen frictions to arise now,” Ran said.

“Yeah, that sounds good.” Let’s just say that I didn’t act unreasonably because of my cute niece, but rather that my niece has a good eye for people! Ha ha ha, that didn’t change the fact that my efforts had been useless!

“More importantly, what are you going to do about that?”

“About what?”

Ran slowly drank her wine while observing the people letting loose at the celebration party. The troops had eliminated eight treants and stayed mostly unharmed. The civil officials and military officers were elated by this sweeping victory’s low costs relative to the serious circumstances. Naturally, their good mood extended towards the person who had rendered distinguished service this time: Ash.

Ah, yes. Come to think of it, Ash graduated from the academy, so he’s reached a good age for marriage.

Ash appeared to be quite popular among the attendees. Several of them were talking about marriage proposals. Well, having two silver medals at his age already did promise a great future. If I were in their place, I would probably try and make him my son-in-law too.

“This is bad. If I don’t do anything, Maika will go into a rage!” I exclaimed.

“I’m not sure it would stop at that. Sir George mentioned just earlier what a great swordswoman she is.”

Stop it! Don’t look at my neck!

Maika did indeed carry around a sword when she was truly angry, so this was no laughing matter!

“I can’t let Maika get angry, Ran.”

Recently my heart had almost stopped when she had said that she “hated” me! If she had said that she “loathed” me, I probably wouldn’t be able to keep on living as her uncle!

“You are right. You shouldn’t overlook this as the acting count of Sacula.”

Exactly. I was supposed to become the next count after all. If I died, that would end up causing a lot of trouble.

“Especially since Lady Maika might cause an uproar by fighting for Ash in duels... Sir Klein claimed a lot of victims when he fought for Lady Yuika.”

Huh? She’s not worried about me?

Still, she was right. Those duels had caused quite the uproar. The overall casualties may have been low, but that was only thanks to my dear brother-in-law’s skilful restraint. Regardless, many civil and military officers and representatives from other territories had ended up with injuries leaving them incapable of returning to their work. In other words, if I ignored this situation, all kinds of things could go awry.

“Ran, we need to act quickly.”

When I spoke in a serious tone, Ran just took a sip of her wine and nodded, as if to say, “I told you so just earlier.”

“How about you confer knighthood upon Ash and bring up the engagement?” she said.

“That sounds like a plan! But first I’ll have to consult with my father, since it involves my succession line. I have to introduce him to both of them.”

Hopefully my father Gentoh was going to react appropriately. I was pretty confident he was going to like Ash. From his letters, it even appeared that he may have already taken a liking to him. The problem lay with Maika. My father was an overprotective parent who still lamented the fact that my dear brother-in-law Klein had stolen his daughter when he got drunk. I couldn’t predict how he was going to behave when it came to his granddaughter Maika. Although it was probably all right since Maika was so cute. If she fawned him, he would surely give in—just like I always did.

“By the way, where is Maika?”

She wasn’t present at the victory celebration party. Neither was Renge. And Ash was still dealing with the aftermath of the battle, so none of the Territory Reform Promotion Office’s biggest stars were present.

“If you are looking for Maika, she is working. When I told her about the banquet, she just asked to have the food brought to her office.”

“She’s at her office?”

What was she doing there at this time?

“The fight led to Ajole’s destruction.”

“That is indeed unfortunate, but it’s a small sacrifice.”

“I agree. But according to Lady Maika, Ash doesn’t think so.”

Upon hearing that last sentence, it all clicked. It seemed that I had spent enough time with Ash and Maika to intuitively understand what they were thinking.

“So she’s already working on finding a new home for the displaced villagers.”

“Yes. Lady Maika said that that is what Ash would do.”

“He most certainly would.” It’s Ash after all.

No politician or bureaucrat would have even batted an eye if Ajole had been left to its own devices. And yet Ash took on and tried to solve that tremendously difficult task himself. And he did solve it. He just got unlucky at the very end. Ash had the strength to get things done one way or another—he was a genius. Where others gave up because it seemed hopeless, he pushed until the problem was solved. As a result, if he felt like he couldn’t leave something alone, then he wasn’t going to ignore it. It was hard to imagine how much work this entailed. Having followed part of his journey this past year, I was struck with admiration at how much work he got done himself. And Maika was desperately trying to catch up with him, so she could stay by his side.

“Say, Ran.”

“Yes?”

“Don’t you think it’ll be impossible for those rookies to win over Ash’s heart?”

If my cute Maika had only recently reached a point where she could possibly keep up with Ash, it was going to be near impossible for those people. It was like Maika had said—even if she took over as count of Sacula, there was no guarantee that she could hold a candle to Ash.

“I think you’re probably right. However, Lady Maika will still be in a bad mood, so we should prepare for their engagement as soon as possible.”

Keeping Maika in a good mood was indeed important. As important as my own life.

Renge’s Perspective

Ash’s response team had succeeded in subjugating the treants! It would be common sense to disbelieve that report. Ash’s main mission had been to rescue the villagers, then attract the treants’ attention and lead them to the city, not to eliminate them as well. But when talking about Ash, common sense didn’t apply. Not only had I learned that from Lady Maika, I had also experienced it myself over these past few years.

Renge, if you have time to get flustered over such trivial matters, you should just return to work! That’s the way things are done here!

Lady Maika was the embodiment of that work style. She sat at her desk with her arms folded thinking about the way ahead.

“First, we need to find out how many people and households have evacuated Ajole village and prepare temporary accommodations in the city. Then, we’ve got to confirm the damages in Ajole, so we can judge whether they can go back or if they have to move somewhere else...”

“Chief Maika, according to the messenger’s report, the houses were torn down in order to subjugate the treants. Ajole is no longer...”

“Hm. In that case, we have to arrange their migration.”

Lady Maika sighed and frowned. It was tough on a business and emotional level. Suiren must have been devastated too. But I was sure that after her recent growth she was capable of leading everyone. I wanted to help her too.

“It’ll be important to know how much money we can use on Ajole’s villagers,” Lady Maika said.

“Yes, I will ask Ms. Ran to have a look at our budget later so I can calculate how much is available. And maybe we could ask Quid and his fellow merchants for help too.”

“I will bow my head as many times as necessary if that gets us any more help. I should also get my uncle to ask for help.”

Suiren should be able to tell us how many people and households there were later. Then we had to find enough places to house all these people.

“I will ask my father how many he can accommodate in Adele. We should also be able to house some here in the city. And what about your hometown, Noscula village?”

“Of course, they can take on some people! But it’s just a small village, so there’s not enough space for everyone...” She shook her head. That probably applied to most places. “This time around, we’ll probably need to send them to villages all over the place. That may be difficult to accept for the residents of Ajole, but the villages that are supposed to receive them most likely won’t be amused either.”

“Yes, we need to come up with a solution in that regard. Conventionally, the count would provide subsidiary aid to the accommodating village as an incentive,” I replied while referencing past examples from a document that I had borrowed from the archives.

“It comes back to money again! I don’t think we have that much money to spare!”

“Probably not... I haven’t checked the budget yet, but for the time being we will most likely have to spend the majority on guaranteeing the livelihood of Ajole’s residents.”

“I thought as much. So we’ll have to come up with another method that doesn’t cost any money...”

“If only we could think of any benefits to accommodating the Ajole residents...”

Normally, accepting a refugee was considered an act of mercy. But if there were any benefits attached, you could call it scouting or soliciting.

“What would Ash do...?” Lady Maika murmured. Her face looked as if she had run into a stone wall. “Ash most likely wouldn’t refer to it as accommodating refugees. He would try and sell the idea by saying that accepting these people will bring good fortune to their village!”

In fact, whenever he proposed a plan to Lord Itsuki, Ash always emphasized the positives. He even managed to turn apparent drawbacks into benefits by taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture.

“Ajole’s strengths... Hm, they cooperated for a whole year with our project, but I can’t really think of any...”

Upon hearing my murmur, Lady Maika hit the desk and stood up. “That’s it!”

“Wh-What?”

“You just said it. The Ajole residents helped us carry out the agricultural improvement plan!” Lady Maika exclaimed with a big grin on her face. “They know how to use the newest farming techniques! We can send them all over the place to coach farmers!”

“Chief Maika! That’s it! That’s an amazing idea!”

It sounded like an idea straight from Ash! I stood up and held hands with Lady Maika to express my joy.

“Let’s go with this idea! How should we select the villages?” she asked.

“Should we go by harvest yield? But maybe it’d be better to take into consideration personal relationships. It will be easier to negotiate if they know you or Ash. Like your former classmates from the academy.”

After that eureka moment, my thoughts started running wild. Seeing me blurt out ideas, Lady Maika gave me a smile. Until a moment ago, she had been fixated on our new project, but now she was clearly staring at me.

“You’ve become a lot more reliable, Renge.”

“R-Really?”

“You’ve changed a lot. I mean, you’ve always been reliable, but... Haven’t you noticed? Until just now, you hadn’t stuttered at all.”

I was totally unaware. Surprised, I covered my mouth. W-Was she right? I had been absorbed in my thoughts, so I hadn’t noticed it at all...

“You’ve grown stronger, Renge.”

“S-S-So have you! Y-You just proposed an idea th-that could easily be mistaken f-for Ash’s!”

My face turned red as I spoke. Hearing Lady Maika’s praise, I felt like I had come just a little closer to Ash’s strength.

●　●　●

One month had passed since the large fire in Ajole village. The fire I caused. Since most houses had been completely destroyed, Ajole’s reconstruction was postponed for the time being. It was already fall, and even if we hurried the houses’ construction, it was unlikely we would finish before winter.

Lord Itsuki had explained the situation and sincerely apologized for the troops’ lack of ability to Chief Suiren and the residents of Ajole. In response, Chief Suiren, who had been prepared to completely abandon her village, eloquently expressed her gratitude for the swift evacuation. Personally, I also could not thank them enough for going easy on me despite being the source of most problems.

Therefore, Ajole’s reconstruction was postponed until spring. In the meanwhile, the villagers needed a new place to live. The residents had been kind enough to forgive me, so it was only natural that I was put in charge of the relocation task. Thus, I set out to find a solution while recovering from the injuries on my right arm and torso.

When Lady Maika and Lady Renge showed up, they both looked like they were going to lecture me at any moment. While it may not have been a huge number of people, we still needed to transplant a whole village. Thankfully, since the village was made up of elite farmers who had learned the newest farming techniques, it was also the perfect opportunity to export those methods to other places. Accidentally, it had turned into a splendid opportunity for our agricultural development plan. I anticipated the relocation to be a huge task, but Lady Maika and Lady Renge had already come up with the basic outline, making it much easier. So much so that I might as well just have left everything up to these two.

As the vanguard of the migration plan that I had drafted with the help of the two girls, I headed towards Adele village. Among the reasons why Adele had been chosen as the first destination spot were the fact that there was a shortage of workers, as well as the fact that it was a convenient location for Ajole residents with a lingering attachment to their birthplace. In addition, one of the plan’s architects saw it as an opportunity to take care of a hitherto postponed problem.

“Ash, it has been a while.” Chief Marco greeted me as I arrived at the village with the immigrants.

“It is good to see you, Chief Marco. Thank you very much for so readily agreeing to our proposal.”

“Don’t mention it. Besides, it will also be extremely helpful for us, so I should be the one thanking you.” Chief Marco gently smiled before looking at the nervous Chief Suiren. “Please make yourself at home, Suiren.”

“Th-Thank you! Um... Thank you so much for everything you’ve done for us so far, including this.”

It appeared that Chief Suiren, who had taken a deep bow, was not yet finished expressing her gratitude for Adele’s past favors. However, she was interrupted by a problem that needed urgent attention.

“If it isn’t Suiren! And Ash.”

The former village chief—the parasitic god of plague—entered the scene, shamelessly pretending that he had been worried. Oozing fake tears over his frail-looking face, he grasped Chief Suiren’s hand.

“Suiren, we owe it to you for seeking help from Itsutsu city. Thanks to you, all the other villagers managed to safely escape. Well done. I am proud both as your father and the village chief.”

How amazing. He still considered himself to be in charge. He did not even feel the need to apologize for leaving the village before anyone else without giving any concrete orders. And he somehow managed to make Chief Suiren’s courageous trip to the city about himself as a parent.

“No, Dad. There’s something important I need to tell you...”

“What are you talking about? Nothing makes me happier than seeing my one and only daughter grow up.”

“This isn’t the right time, dad...”

His daughter, who had already become an infinitely better village chief than him, was visibly perplexed by his shameless behavior. He was still her father after all, even if he was a parasite. As his daughter, it must have been difficult to clearly state the facts.

While taking out the legal documents that had multiplied over the past month, I tapped on Lady Suiren’s shoulder to let her know I was going to take over. She looked at her father with sadness in her eyes before bowing her head and leaving the rest to me.

“I will take care of it. This is part of my job after all. Chief Marco, could you please discuss the details of the immigration with Chief Suiren?”

There was no need for her to witness the rest. Chief Marco seemed to agree as he nodded and led Chief Suiren to his house. The only one who did not know what was going on was the former village chief, Louis.

“Did you just call Suiren ‘chief,’ Ash? I did pick her as my representative, but that was already a while ago—”

“Former Chief Louis.” I made the parasite, who was talking without permission, clearly aware of his current position. “I am finally able to tell you face to face. In the name of the acting count, I issue you a summons. Please surrender and follow us back to the city,” I declared while presenting former Chief Louis with the bundle of written decrees.

“A s-summons? Why would I... And why do you call me ‘former chief’?! I was appointed chief of Ajole by His Excellency the count himself!”

“Please choose your words carefully. You are the former village chief. If you keep calling yourself village chief after reading this document, you may end up getting accused of identity fraud and deceiving the public.” Watch out. I’ll be the first one to accuse you.

“Y-You insolent brat! A-Are you threatening me?”

“What a harsh reply to my kind advice. It is also written here on this document.”

The first decree was a note that temporarily released the man called Louis of his duties as the village chief of Ajole due to doubts in his ability to carry out his job and requested his presence for questioning. At the same time, it appointed his daughter Lady Suiren as the new provisional village chief. In other words, Lady Suiren had officially been the village chief for the past month, albeit still provisionally.

“I-It can’t be! Who doubts my abilities?!”

Come on, don’t play dumb. Not only had he overseen bad harvests for the past twenty years, but he had also wholesale delegated his job to a representative for a whole year due to a fake sickness.

“The second decree orders you to cooperate with an investigation into a suspected neglect of duty during your time as village chief. And the third one is a summons for a perceived abuse of authority.” Take this triple strike of summons!

“Wh-Wha—! What a load of rubbish! Why do you have those letters?”

“The Territory Reform Promotion Office works directly under the acting count, so he often entrusts us with extra tasks like this. Besides, I am also affiliated with the military.” I was the perfect candidate to double as a police officer and guide for Ajole’s refugees. “And there is more. The fourth decree states that you are suspected of intentionally trying to leak information classified as confidential by the count himself.”

That was the fourth summons.

“Th-That’s... I didn’t mean that. You know that, right?”

I had heard it with my own ears. I’m not going to let you make any excuses.

“This would also be considered treason, which is a grave crime. When the acting count Lord Itsuki heard my report, he was eager to hear your objection so he could reach a conclusion.”

So much so that he had already written a guilty verdict and detailed the possible punishment. The first four decrees were parasite pesticide that Lord Itsuki had prepared a month ago. If it had not been for the treants’ appearance, I would have just apprehended Louis—who was still village chief at that point—during a food supply run to Ajole village, but some time had passed since then. And it appeared that a little more time was going to pass before I could come to my final point.

The former village chief’s pale face turned bright red as he started to rant and rave. “Who’s this a-acting count?! I-I was directly appointed by His Excellency the count himself! As if someone could dispose of me on his behalf!”

“Well, His Excellency the count has bestowed his authority upon the acting count as his representative. Moreover, you very haughtily claim to have been directly appointed, but did you not just inherit the title as your predecessor’s eldest son? His Excellency the count merely ratified it—or, I should say, gave his tacit approval.”

I did not think this was going to have any effect. After all, he was the kind of illogical person that just overturned a contract signed by the acting village chief.

“I don’t care! If you want me to listen, bring the count here! I won’t talk to a brat like you!”

“I am afraid I will not be able to bring along His Excellency the count, who is currently in the royal capital.”

“Then leave, you stupid brat!”

“However, I do have a written order from His Excellency the count.”

Over the past month, word of this parasite’s acts had made it to the capital. Apparently, His Excellency the count had been extremely concerned by the circumstances, so much so that he had sent a response by post-horse. In his letter, he apologized for his bad judgment in appointing that infamous person as village chief. He had also enclosed a decree that essentially ordered us to get rid of him right away.

“The fifth decree is an arrest warrant written by His Excellency the count himself. You are accused of malfeasance for neglecting your responsibilities as village chief and abandoning the villagers whom you swore to protect.”

It was a five-strike combo instakill. This last decree skipped over any trials and immediately proclaimed him guilty as charged. Up until the fourth one, the parasite had only been treated as a suspect, but over the past month he had become a convicted criminal. The count’s almost dictator-like authority was scary.

“If you disobey this decree, you will be charged with treason, no questions asked.” While thinking how scary this was, I smiled at the criminal in front of me. “If you allow me to state my personal opinion, I would love to see you disobey.” I want to charge you with treason. That’ll save us time listening to your poor excuses.

Unfortunately, the former village chief and small-time crook Louis’s knees gave up out of fear of being accused of treason and he collapsed. What a shame!