Chapter 21: Choosing Where to Live

It was just before noon on the fourth day after Heinz had gone down the mountain, saying, “There’s a family asking whether they can live here.”

Four figures appeared on the southern road.

They had no packhorse. The man in front carried a large pack on his back, and behind him walked a woman and a young man and woman. Their baggage was more substantial than that of the eight people who’d fled from beyond the mountain. Along with a pot and cloth-wrapped bundles, they even carried what looked like the blade of a hoe wrapped in fabric.

All four spotted me before they reached the village entrance.

They stopped.

“…There really is one.”

I could hear the young man’s voice from here.

The man in front looked back.

“Don’t make a fuss. You heard about him before we came.”

“Hearing about him and seeing him are different.”

I thought that was fair.

I remained lying outside the fence without moving.

If I approached them, they might be too frightened to talk.

Before long, Dario came to the entrance.

“What do you want?”

“I believe word should’ve reached you from a merchant named Heinz,” the man in front replied. “I’m the one who asked whether we could live here.”

Dario made the four wait there and went to fetch the village chief.

None of them tried to cross the fence without permission.

When the chief arrived a short while later, the man lowered his pack to the ground.

“Four of you?”

“Yes. I’m Mark. This is my wife, my son, and my daughter.”

His wife and two children bowed as well.

“What did Heinz tell you?”

The chief got straight to the point before even offering a greeting.

“He said this village has a dragon who protects it. Merchants can come here with packhorses now, and the village sells charcoal and buys grain and salt.”

“Anything else?”

“He also said this isn’t a village with food to spare.”

A little of the severity left the chief’s face.

“If you’d come without knowing that, this would’ve been a short conversation.”

“We didn’t come here to be fed.”

Mark gestured to their baggage.

“We’ve only come to look today, but we brought enough to eat for a while. If we decide to move, we’ll bring the food and tools still at our current home too.”

“Are you being driven out of that home?”

“No.”

“Your place wasn’t attacked by magical beasts either?”

“That’s not it.”

The chief fell silent and waited for him to continue.

“We can still live where we are now. But there’s almost no room to expand our fields. My son is old enough to work too. If the four of us stay in the same place, the future will be difficult.”

Their circumstances were entirely different from those of the eight who’d fled from beyond the mountain.

It wasn’t that they had nowhere to return to.

They were thinking about the future and looking for somewhere else to live.

“And that’s why you chose Rue Village?”

“Yes.”

“You thought it would be safe because there’s a dragon here?”

“That was one reason.”

Mark didn’t try to hide it.

The chief glanced toward the mountain.

“Then I’ll tell you this first. This isn’t a safe place either.”

“Heinz told us.”

“How much?”

“He said that if we were coming because we thought the dragon would kill anything for us, we shouldn’t bother.”

That sounded like Heinz.

“We still aren’t letting anyone go toward the mountain. A large magical beast has appeared there.”

“Near the village?”

“Yes. We’ve also stopped work on the land we were planning to use.”

Mark’s wife looked uneasy for the first time.

Even so, none of them tried to leave.

“So you weren’t told there was spare land here?” Dario confirmed.

“No.”

“Then what can you do?”

Mark thought for a moment.

“Nothing special. Farm work, splitting firewood, repairing fences. I’ve helped make charcoal a little. My wife can work in the fields and mend clothes. My son can do the same sort of work I can.”

“Blacksmithing?”

“No.”

“Carpentry?”

“I can repair something that’s broken. But if you told me to build a house from the ground up, I couldn’t.”

“Hunting?”

“I’ve used a few traps, but I’m not a hunter.”

They weren’t a family who could do everything.

But it seemed they could help with the ordinary work the village needed.

The chief didn’t decide immediately.

“Look around before you talk any further.”

He turned to Dario.

“Show them only the safe areas. Don’t let them near the mountain side.”

“All right.”

The four left their baggage near the entrance and followed Dario into the village.

I remained outside the fence.

They were the ones who would live here.

It wasn’t for me to make the decision.

Still, I was curious about what they would look at.

Rue Village had almost nothing it could proudly show outsiders.

The houses were old, and the fence bore the marks of countless repairs. The fields hadn’t suddenly become fertile, and the flat ground on the mountainside still couldn’t be used.

Even so, Mark and his family didn’t merely look at the buildings and stop there.

They asked what was planted in the fields and examined the tools being used. His wife watched how the villagers carried water, while his son spoke with a man repairing the fence.

Only the daughter kept glancing at me.

Eventually Lina approached her, and the two began talking.

I couldn’t make out exactly what they were saying.

But some of the tension had left the girl’s face.

The four returned after a while.

Mark looked more troubled than he had when he’d arrived.

“Well?” the chief asked.

“It isn’t an easy village.”

“I told you that from the beginning.”

“And we wouldn’t immediately receive enough farmland for one family.”

“I never said we had spare fields to give you.”

“The mountain side can’t be used right now either.”

“Correct.”

Mark exchanged a look with his wife.

“Even so, we want to come.”

The chief narrowed his eyes.

“You decided that after looking around for just one day?”

“I decided because I looked.”

“At what?”

“There isn’t a lack of work.”

Mark looked toward the fields.

“The fields you already have still need hands. There are fences, firewood, and charcoal too. Even if we can’t have our own field right away, we wouldn’t be asking you to feed us while we did nothing.”

The chief looked at Dario and the several villagers nearby.

“Would three more people get in the way of your current work?”

An older man shook his head.

“Not if they’re willing to work.”

Another villager answered, “More hands for the firewood would help.”

Next, the chief checked where they could sleep.

If they cleared out and crowded into unused spaces, it seemed they could make somewhere for four people to lie down without immediately building another house. But that wouldn’t work over the long term.

“What about food?” the chief asked Mark.

“We’ll bring what remains at our current house. Even then, I can’t say we’ll be able to provide everything ourselves until the next harvest.”

“You’re honest.”

“If we lie to get in, it’ll only cause trouble later.”

“Exactly.”

After thinking a little longer, the chief stated his decision clearly.

“Then we’ll accept you.”

The expressions on all four faces changed.

“Really?” his wife asked.

“But we can’t prepare a new family field for you from the start. You’ll join the work we already have. Bring all the food and tools you can.”

“Understood.”

“You’ll also be lodging in someone else’s space for a while. If you stay here permanently, we’ll discuss what to do about a house afterward.”

“That’s fine.”

“The village stores can’t feed four more people by themselves. Once you arrive, we’ll decide how you’ll work and how food will be divided.”

“We understand that too.”

The chief then looked at Mark’s wife and son.

“Is every member of the family satisfied with those terms?”

His wife nodded.

His son followed.

The daughter glanced at Lina before giving a small nod of her own.

That settled it.

People who hadn’t been driven from their home would move to Rue Village of their own will.

It was the first time that had happened.

One of the men from beyond the mountain had been listening from a short distance away.

“They’re better prepared than we were.”

The chief turned around.

“You brought a few things with you too.”

“Seeds, at most. You helped us with food and somewhere to sleep first.”

The man gave a wry smile.

“They have time to go home and decide what to bring.”

That was a major difference.

The eight had fled from Rock Apes.

Mark’s family could think about what to bring before moving.

“Then you lot help them too,” the chief said. “You know what causes trouble when you’ve only just arrived, so help make somewhere for them to sleep.”

“That much I understand.”

The man nodded readily.

Little by little, the discussion became reality.

Mark and his family wouldn’t stay the night. They would return to their current home while it was still light.

They said they would gather the food and tools they needed and bring whatever they could transport first.

“How many days before you return?” Dario asked.

“I don’t know. I’ll have to see how much we have.”

“Don’t force yourselves to move it all at once.”

“We don’t intend to.”

Just as Mark lifted his pack, he seemed to remember something and looked at me.

“Chief.”

“What?”

“Shouldn’t you ask this dragon too?”

The chief also looked at me.

“Ask him what?”

“Whether we’re allowed to live here.”

I tilted my head slightly.

After seeing my reaction, the chief answered.

“Val protects this village. But we’ve never asked him to decide who may live here.”

I nodded.

That was right.

I’d decided to protect the people who lived here.

If I started selecting who was allowed to become a villager, that would be something entirely different.

“He doesn’t look displeased,” Mark said.

I nodded again.

At the very least, I had no reason to drive these four away.

We could communicate.

They intended to work for themselves.

“Then we’ll come back,” Mark said.

This time, he wasn’t saying they would return to ask whether they could live here.

They would gather their belongings and return to make this place their home.

As the four began to head for the southern road, the daughter stopped.

She said something quietly to Lina.

“She wants to know if she can touch you, Val.”

Lina looked at me.

I looked at the girl.

She was still afraid. The hand she held out toward me was a little stiff.

There was no need to force herself.

But she didn’t run.

I lowered my belly to the ground and dipped my snout slightly.

“Slowly,” Lina encouraged her.

The girl approached.

Her fingertips touched the scales on my snout.

Only for a moment.

She immediately pulled her hand away.

“…Hard.”

Of course they were.

Lina laughed.

“That’s because he’s Val.”

That didn’t explain anything.

“Let’s go,” her father called.

The daughter ran back to him.

The four began down the southern road.

This time, as I watched their backs disappear, I didn’t wonder whether they would return.

It had already been decided that they would.

The question was how to prepare places for four people to sleep and work before then.

“Should we check the available spaces again?” Dario asked.

The chief nodded.

“We won’t discuss building a house yet. First, we’ll clear somewhere they can sleep.”

“What about fields?”

“They’ll join the work we already have. We won’t move on a new field until we know what’s happening on the mountainside.”

“We could have them help with the charcoal too.”

“We’ll decide that after seeing what the man can do.”

There were more things to decide now.

But this wasn’t the same as rushing to make room so people in trouble wouldn’t die.

The village had time to prepare as well.

After the four disappeared from the southern road, I looked around the village.

The number of houses hadn’t increased.

The fields hadn’t expanded.

Food hadn’t suddenly become plentiful.

Even so, four people who hadn’t been here a few days ago would now live in Rue Village.

The black bread I’d received had been half a loaf.

Back then, all I’d thought about was not taking food away from the village.

Now there were people coming to that same village of their own will.

The chief and the others had already set off to check the spaces the family could use.

I stood too and slowly followed them.