Chapter 54: The Bear People’s Families

Haruka called out to us and we went to the tenement where the slaves were.

They looked at me with somewhat nervous faces. The men were large and burly, but the women and children were small and slender. After exchanging greetings with all of them, I gave them permission to reside in the village.

“I’m sure you’ve heard about our village from Haruka, and we would love to have you become a part of it and help us.”

When I looked at Haruka after saying that, she nodded firmly and gave me a thumbs up. It seems that there is no problem with loyalty.

“So, Village Chief ……”

One of the men came forward and sounded as if he was having some difficulty saying something.

“Don’t be afraid to talk, we all live in the village now.”

“I really appreciate you letting us live in the village and even freeing the slaves.”

“Oh, I’m glad too.”

“But the story is too tempting, or rather, too good to be true. ……”

“I see. you’ll have to actually live in the village to prove that part of it. Well, for the time being, I would like you to go inside the safety of the barrier.”

The slaves entered the village with trepidation.

“Merinard, is it possible to free the slaves right now?”

“Yes, it is possible if the master declares liberation by touching the collar of slavery. Currently, I am the master, so let’s do it now.”

Saying this, Merinard removes the collars one after another. The bears who had their collars removed asked, “what about the debt ……?” and “Oh, are you sure?” They were puzzled.

“Now you’re all part of the village. As I’m sure you’ve heard, you’re welcome here as long as your loyalty doesn’t decrease.”

“Thank you, village chief, for freeing us from slavery. So, um, for example, …….”

He pauses, as if he is holding back.

“Well, I’m just wondering, really hypothetically, what you would do if we ran away from the village. No, of course I have no intention of doing that, but ……”

“Hmm, even if you did hypothetically run away, we wouldn’t do anything, okay? We would just be strangers after that.”

“I just met you for the first time today, but I didn’t expect you to trust me so much. …… Oh, yeah, it’s the loyalty.”

“I’m going to do my best to make everyone trust me as much as possible. I hope everyone will do their best.”

“Thank you very much, Chief. We will do our best for the village!”

Everyone bowed their heads in gratitude as he spoke.

“Now, let’s all have lunch together. Dinner will be a welcome party for our new friends. Tsubaki, I’m sorry, but can I leave the arrangements to you?”

“Yes, let’s go all out today!”

The bear family is surrounded by everyone in the village as they introduce themselves. They were nervous at first, but after the children started playing together, the parents were chatting and laughing happily. At this rate, they will be able to blend in well.

Incidentally, the Crook bird that Merinard brought to the village, ……, was able to pass through the barrier without any problems.

◇ ◇◇◇◇

After lunch, I was in the middle of a meeting with Rudrug, leaving Haruka to show them around the village.

“- So, I’d like to ask you to divide the mining workshop and the breeding hut.”

“That’s fine, but what about the location?”

“I’ll leave the breeding hut to you, but you’ll have to consult with Tsubaki and decide. If possible, I would appreciate it if you could come with me to the mine tomorrow.”

“Leave the hut to my apprentice. I’ll go to the mine.”

“We will leave early in the morning. I will take the three bears with me.”

“That’s right, chief. After all, did you need a tenement house? Everyone moved into the village right away…”

“No, it doesn’t work out like this every time. I’ll definitely need it in the near future.

“Is it like that? Well, I’m off to the chicken coop meeting!”

I saw off Rudrug, who walked away quietly, and returned to my house.

Merinard and Merrimus were waiting for him in the living room. Urgan and Uruk were interested in the dungeon and wanted to check the location.

“I’m sorry to keep you waiting. Thank you for your help with the bears, Merrimus.”

“No, I was at the church until a few minutes ago.”

“I think we got most of the story before noon, but if there’s anything else you want to tell us, please let me know.”

“Right. What I want to firmly decide is the type and amount of food to be sold to the council, and the frequency of trade.”

“Hmmm, by the way, what does the council want?”

“The more the merrier. We are also looking at shipping to the capital, so they want us to be as flexible as possible.”

The harvesting cycle for rice is 16 days, 25 days for potatoes, and 27 days for wheat, taking into account the milling of the rice and the milling of the wheat.

This means that just one harvest is enough to feed the entire village for a year. Therefore, there is no need to worry too much about the upper limit of the sales volume. In fact, if we don’t ship regularly, our warehouse will soon run dry.

When I told him about our current situation, he said.

“Then, let’s ship rice and wheat twice a month, alternating between rice and wheat. We will combine the right amount of potatoes for each of those two shipments.”

“What about the sales volume? As expected, we can’t say all of it. …… We want to keep a certain amount in stock just in case.”

“Thanks to the all-purpose warehouse, there will be no deterioration in quality, right? –If so, it is always a good idea to stockpile about two years’ worth. We could ship out all the surplus and it wouldn’t be a problem.”

Two years’ worth should be enough, and there should be no problem with the frequency or type of stockpiling.

“I understand. By the way, out of potato, rice, and wheat, which is the most popular?”

“Without a doubt, potato. Rice will be popular among the Japanese once it is distributed. Wheat is the staple food of this world, so it’s not so bad.”

I thought so, too, judging from the way the villagers were behaving.

“The rest is the selling price. …… I have no idea what it is. I’ll leave it up to the Merry Trading Company.”

It would have been nice to have some money, but as long as we could get supplies from the city, there would be no problem. With this in mind, i left it to the Merry Chamber of Commerce. As long as we don’t know the market price in the city, there is no way to bargain with them in the first place.

“Do you have any conditions or requests?”

“I don’t want to sell at a discount, because I’m afraid you’ll get resentment from the merchants in the city. You can do whatever you want with the rest.”

“Then, you leave the sales amount to us, and 80% of the profit will go to the village, while the Merry Chamber of Commerce will take the remaining 20%.”

“Isn’t 20 percent too little?”

“No, the sign that says “the only window to the village of Nanashi” is worth enough. We think that the immediate profit is trivial, and that it will be enough after the village has made great progress.”

It’s not hard to see Merinard’s point. ……

“I don’t know if I can make the village bigger, and I might not, at my discretion?”

“I don’t mind that. I’m part of the village to begin with.”

“That’s right. …… By the way, don’t you two have wives and children? If so, we want to make sure they can become villagers as soon as possible.”

‘My family couldn’t join the village. So we will stop being villagers too.’ I don’t want to give the Merry Trading Company that reason.

“Yes, I have a wife and my son Merrimus has a wife and child. I plan to bring them with me the next time I come to visit.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t want you to be unable to accept them in case of emergency. And bring a servant, too, if you think he is trustworthy.”

“Then I will do so.”

After that, we continued to discuss the selection of trade goods and the conditions for immigration. We agreed to keep the newly discovered dungeon under wraps for the time being. If we told them anything bad, the Adventurers’ Guild would intervene.

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