Chapter 22: Expanding the Edge of the Village

Mark and his family returned several days later.

This time, they hadn’t merely come to look.

All four carried larger loads than before: sacks of food, pots, bedding, farming tools, and a wooden box. There was no way they could transport everything they owned in one trip, so they seemed to have brought the necessities of daily life first.

“They’re back.”

Beside me outside the fence, Lina waved.

Mark’s daughter spotted Lina and waved back with a slightly tired expression.

Even when the four saw me, they no longer stopped walking.

“Is that everything?” Dario asked when he came to the entrance and saw the pile of baggage.

“Not a chance.”

Mark lowered his pack.

“We’ll have to make several more trips. I don’t want to leave behind anything we can bring.”

“Don’t try to carry too much in one trip.”

“That’s why we split it up.”

His son set down his load too and let out a long breath.

I’d been watching from a short distance, but when Mark bent his knees to lift the wooden box, I stood.

“Val?”

Lina looked at me.

With my current body, I could push the box.

Trying to hold it with my forelegs might catch my claws on it, so I moved around to the side and slid it over the ground without damaging it.

“Oh!”

Mark’s eyes widened.

“That helps.”

His son glanced at him.

“Val did it before you even asked him.”

“I know.”

That was how I preferred it too.

I had no intention of letting them treat me as their porter as if it were only natural.

I pushed the box near the entrance and left it there.

The chief and the others had already cleared a place for Mark’s family to use for the time being.

It was only large enough for four people to lie down, not a whole house given over to them. Their belongings would quickly make it cramped, but Mark didn’t complain when he saw inside.

“This will be enough to begin with.”

“You can’t live here for long,” the chief said.

“I know. We agreed we’d think about a house after we arrived.”

“As long as you understand.”

Once they’d put away their belongings, the three who could work joined the village’s tasks that very day.

Mark and his son helped repair the fence, while his wife joined the villagers heading for the fields. They couldn’t do everything, but they listened to their instructions and asked whenever they didn’t understand something.

Apparently, that was enough.

After the daughter finished sorting their baggage, she came to me with Lina.

“Her name’s Mia,” Lina said.

The girl—Mia—bowed.

“Thank you for letting me touch you the other day.”

I lowered my head slightly in return.

“He really does understand.”

“I told you he did.”

“I knew that, but it’s still strange.”

This time, Mia came fairly close without being afraid.

“Val, are you going to stay in this village forever?”

I thought for a moment, then nodded.

At the very least, I had no intention of leaving now.

“Then…what about us?”

I understood what she wanted to ask.

I nodded again.

The village chief had accepted them, and they’d chosen to live here.

That meant they were people I would protect in this village too.

Mia’s face brightened.

“Good.”

Lina smiled beside her.

By that evening, the sight of Mark’s family in the village had already stopped feeling unusual.

But once they began living here, other problems became visible.

The four had somewhere to sleep.

But once they put their possessions there, it was cramped.

When they brought the tools and food they’d left behind, they wouldn’t be able to live there for long.

A few days later, the chief, Dario, and Mark’s family walked around the southern part of the village.

I followed at a short distance.

“Wouldn’t somewhere around here work?” Dario asked, pointing to the inside of the fence.

“We can squeeze people in temporarily, but it isn’t suitable for another house,” the chief replied.

Some of the existing space was already being used after taking in the eight people. He apparently wanted to avoid cramming a new house into an area needed for people and goods to pass.

“Then put it outside?”

“What would be the point of putting only the house outside?”

“Guess we’ll have to expand the fence.”

The chief looked south.

No one suggested expanding toward the mountain.

That was where the Rock Apes had passed and the huge bear-like magical beast had appeared.

“If we expand, it should be this way.”

The chief pointed south.

“But don’t bring it too close to the road. Leave room for packhorses to pass.”

Dario and Mark surveyed the area.

Just beyond the current fence was ground that wasn’t a steep slope. But low trees and grass grew there, and it wasn’t ready for a house to be built at once.

“If it’s only for the four of us, you don’t need to enclose that much,” Mark said.

“If we put the fence right up against your house, we’ll only have to move it again later.”

The chief walked while examining the ground.

“We’ll leave enough room for people to pass. It can’t stick out into the road either.”

“Someone else might come too,” Dario said.

The chief gave him an annoyed look.

“We don’t know that.”

“But you’re already thinking about it.”

“I’m thinking about making sure the four people here now won’t have trouble.”

In the end, they didn’t expand it by much all at once.

They would extend the southern fence a short distance, securing enough ground for Mark’s family to build a house in the future and enough space for people to pass.

That was all.

The work proceeded without interrupting the village’s other tasks.

They cleared the grass and low trees and prepared the posts they needed. There was still fieldwork and firewood to gather, so the entire village didn’t spend all day there.

I carried wood several times too.

Even logs that took two humans to handle could be pushed and moved by my current body.

“A little farther right!”

I changed direction at Lina’s call.

“There! Leave it there!”

When I placed the log where she’d indicated, Mark’s son, who was working nearby, laughed.

“Lina, you order Val around just like anyone else.”

“If he puts it in the wrong place, he’ll only have to move it again.”

She was right.

I breathed out through my nose and headed for the next log.

After several days, new posts began to line up outside the old fence.

During that time, Mark and his family gradually carried over the belongings they’d left behind. Each time they returned, the number of things used in the village increased.

They joined in the work too.

His son helped with the fence and moving firewood, while Mark worked in the fields as well. His wife labored alongside the other villagers, and Mia began spending much of her time with Lina.

They still hadn’t been here long.

Even so, no one looked at the family’s presence as something unusual anymore.

Not long after that, the new fence connected to both ends of the old one.

Dario pushed one of the posts to test it.

“Seems sturdy.”

The chief walked from one end to the other before finally nodding.

“Remove the old section.”

They’d completed the outside first, so there was almost no time during the work when the village lacked an enclosure.

Part of what had once been the southernmost fence was taken down.

Beyond it, the new fence already stood.

Mark stepped onto the newly enclosed ground and began picking up stones with his son.

“Building the house here?” Dario asked.

“That’s the plan. I’ll check the ground properly first.”

“Don’t try to do everything by yourself.”

“I told you when I arrived that I couldn’t build an entire house alone.”

“You remembered?”

“I was the one who said it.”

The chief came over as well.

“Don’t rush the house and abandon your other work.”

“I know.”

“Don’t cut the materials without asking either.”

“I’ll ask about that too.”

“And where you’ll use fire—”

“I’ll ask before doing that as well.”

Mark gave a wry smile.

“Anything else?”

“More will come up once you start building.”

“Of course.”

Dario burst out laughing.

That afternoon, I made a short flight around the village.

I kept away from the mountain side and circled through my usual range.

From above, the difference was immediately obvious.

Only the southern fence bulged a little farther outward than before.

Inside it, Mark and his son picked stones from the spot where they planned to build their house. A short distance away, Lina and Mia walked carrying a load between them.

It was only a tiny expansion.

From the air, it didn’t look like much compared to the size of the village as a whole.

I tilted my wings and descended.

As usual, I landed outside the fence.

When my feet touched the ground and I looked back, the place where I’d often landed before was now inside the new fence.

I moved a little farther south and folded my wings there.