Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 24. The hidden Village (2)
After lining up some wooden boxes to serve as chairs in the dirt floor of the house, the old woman sat down and looked up at Elliot and Lloyd with a pitying expression.
“Even if you really want to go… that’s just impossible.”
“What do you mean it’s impossible?”
When Elliot asked, the old woman gave him a confused look.
“The word “invited” is, well, it’s like a metaphor. It’s not about whether someone invites you, it’s about whether you are invited to the village itself. From what I’ve heard, there’s some kind of old magic on the village itself or something .”
“Magic ……? Is it some kind of concealment spell by a magician, or some kind of barrier?”
The old woman gave a wry smile.
“I’m sorry, I’m just a farmer’s wife, so I don’t know about those details. All I know are the legends and stories I’ve heard, that kind of things. I can tell you what I know if you like.”
“…That’s fine. Let me hear it.”
Right now, more than anything, Elliott needed clues. Elliott managed to suppress his emotions and waited for the old woman to speak.
“That village doesn’t have a name, so people call it by all sorts of names, but …… in the olden days, it used to be called ‘The Village of Selfless Blessing’.”
“The Blessing of the Selfless ……?”
“Yes. They say that only those who have the selfless blessing are invited. It means people who put others before themselves, people who have a strong desire to do something for someone else or to help someone else.”
The old woman pointed at the farm tools standing in the corner of the dirt floor.
“The hoe and plow there were made for me in that village when I was young. At that time, I was so desperate to bring up my children that all I could think about was what was best for them. Now that my children and grandchildren have left home, I have my hands full with my own life, so I don’t really have much connection to that village anymore.”
The old woman then looked at her wrinkled hands.
“Well, there aren’t many people who don’t think about themselves at all, so it’s probably a matter of the proportion and strength of their feelings or something along those lines.”
The old woman looked Elliot straight in the eyes.
“I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with being self-absorbed. It’s just that the village doesn’t invite people who can only think of themselves, that’s all.”
The old woman’s tone was gentle, but even so, Elliott clenched his fists to contain the indignation he felt, which was almost self-loathing.
They heard the sound of horses’ hoofs outside and turned to see a peddler pulling a wagon stopped in front of a house.
“Hello, Granny. Could I have some water and some fodder? Also, I’ve got some tasty peaches in stock. Would you like some?”
“Oh my, that would be nice. I just got some guests over, so let’s have some.”
“I’ll give you a discount because I want everyone to enjoy them.”
While having such exchange, the sun-tanned peddler tied his horse to the carriage stop, retrieved his goods, and came to the eaves of the house.
“It was a big hit with the children in the nearby village. I can guarantee it tastes good.”
“Nearby village? You don’t mean to tell me you’re coming from the ‘Blacksmith Village’?”
“Yes, I am. I was there since yesterday, and now I’m on my way home.”
“Can merchants also enter and leave the village…?”
The old woman laughed at Elliott’s questioning, with a slightly exasperated look on her face.
“What, no selfless blessing for merchants? That’s not true.”
“ah, what, I thought you must’ve been new around here, so is that what you were talking about.”
The old woman nodded at the merchant, who spoke with a knowing look on his face, and then turned to Elliot and Lloyd and smiled, wrinkles deepening in her eyes.
“Well, sometimes there are. Just like you guys, there are people who come here looking for that village.”
Elliot and the others sat down on the wooden boxes lined up on the dirt floor, which served as tables and chairs, and the old woman served the peddler and the others peeled peaches and tea.
“Merchants only think about making money for themselves, right? Well, actually, there are a lot of people like that, and I don’t blame you for thinking so.”
The peddler didn’t seem to mind, just sipped the tea he was offered and continued his story.
“Even I can’t always get into that village. Yesterday, by chance, I happened to have a lot of really good peaches in stock, and I was thinking about how happy the customers would be when they bought them, and that’s how I ended up there.”
“There are actually quite a few merchants who are more concerned with pleasing their customers and their makers than with their own profits, you know.”
As Elliot listens to the conversation, he asks himself,
–When did I become someone who only thought about myself? Without even realizing it…
The fact that he wasn’t even aware of it was frightening. It was only reasonable that the village would not accept him.
Beside Elliot, who clammed up, Lloyd spoke up.
“Hypothetically, is it possible for you to take me there?”
“No, that’s not possible either. Either I won’t be able to enter either, or we’ll somehow get separated without knowing and you’ll be left behind as the only one not invited.”
“I see. ……”
Lloyd’s shoulders slump. Elliot gave up on the idea of going to the village and asked about something else.
“Well, could you get a blacksmith, Mr. Dolph, to come out of the village for me?”
“Oh, you guys came to see Old man Dolph? …Well, that’s a pity…”
The peddler scratched his head with a puzzled look on his face.
“The old man went on a trip about the day before yesterday and is no longer in the village.”
“…But…where is he going?”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t know. The artisans in that village travel from time to time, but they won’t tell you where they’re going.”
At these words, Elliot’s face lost expression. He felt as if his eyes had been painted black.
As the sun began to set, Elliot and Lloyd mounted their horses and set off on their journey back along the road to the royal capital.
“Not only can we not get there, but I can’t believe he’s not even there…”
At Lloyd’s despondent voice, Elliott returned a voiceless silence.
“…Even so, it is a ‘selfless blessing’… Was it your father or your mother who bestowed that sword upon you? Either way, you were thought of dearly…”
Lloyd’s next words were probably just a casual response, but I couldn’t honestly answer that it was my ex-wife, the one I’d just recently separated from.
Ad
No sound came out of my open mouth.
–I can’t even remember what Flora’s face looked like at that time…
I was so focused on getting the messy stuff out of the way that I didn’t see anything. I didn’t even try to look.
As I was being rocked by the horse, the emotions building up in my stomach became so heavy that I could barely breathe.