Chapter Two: Savior of the Pioneer Villages
Led by Kasim, Vandal headed toward the village that served as their base of operations—the Seventh Pioneer Village.
“A pioneer village, back here?” Vandal asked. “But there’s a town and even a mine farther south.”
Festa was just as surprised as Vandal. “I don’t know about any towns. The only thing south of the village are mountains with a slave mine. Cross those and you’ll be in a different domain.”
“Hold on,” Kasim said. “I do remember talk about there being a town 100, probably 200 years ago. Maybe that’s the place Vandal is talking about.”
“Ah, right,” Zeno said. “You’ve got a vamp for a parent, haven’t you? That time scale would work.”
It looked like the Heartner Domain was not flourishing quite as it had 200 years ago.
“What happened to that town?” Vandal asked.
The boys all shook their heads.
“Sorry. We never learned that. Each domain is like its own little nation, run by the duke and his nobles. Kids aren’t taught the histories of other domains.”
“You aren’t from here?”
“Ah, now that’s a pretty tale to tell. Tears for the listener, tears for the teller—”
“Festa, let me talk,” Zeno interrupted. “I’ll tell you everything I know about that town.”
According to Zeno’s explanation, the direct cause was—as Vandal had guessed—the fall of Talosheim. The town had been created as a waypoint in trade, and so when that dried up, the town quickly lost all productivity. The southern mine started to dry up around the same time. Paying a working wage would no longer cover their costs, and so they had switched to using slaves. That meant the miners were no longer spending money either. The duke at the time, who had only held the post for a few years, decided to evacuate the town.
That’s a pretty bold move, Vandal thought. That wouldn’t have been popular in Japan. But in that case, what happened to the first princess? Zeno’s explanation made no mention of the name of Lebia, first princess of Talosheim. He might have skipped over her involvement, if she wasn’t directly involved. I’d love to ask, but it wouldn’t be a natural segway.
Then Zeno made a pretty unnatural break himself, leaping right up to current events.
“In the past five years, though, the Amidd Empire has been on the attack. They’ve taken over pretty much all of the Saulon Domain, which was north from here. That’s where we came from.”
“We’re refugees,” Festa said. “That’s the short of it. The empire minds their manners in the towns and large farming villages, but in small places like ours, they do whatever they like. My oldest brother was trying to save his fiancée, and both of them got—”
“Festa. That’s not the kind of thing to share with a little kid,” Kasim admonished.
So this was the war between the Amidd Empire and Olbaum Electorate Kingdom. It all suddenly felt a lot closer to home.
“Point is, we’re refugees, fleeing from the Saulon Domain down here to Heartner. Once the war settled down, Prince Belton—the second son of the current duke—started the pioneer villages to help out refugees, and we ended up living with our folks in the Seventh Pioneer Village. That’s where we’re heading now.”
“Still not an easy life,” Zeon added. “Three years after the village was built, we became adventurers.”
“I see,” Vandal said. “You’ve definitely had hard lives.”
Setting up a pioneer villages seemed like a good move for dealing with refugees. Unlike Earth, Ramda had lots of terrain with no one living on it. The area wasn’t a demon barren, the monsters were only Rank 2 even if they showed up, and since the only road led to a slave mine, there weren’t bandits, either.
Okay, so I did wipe out a horde of goblins led by a Goblin King just yesterday, but those were more like . . . a natural disaster, let’s call it. The appearance on the road of the Goblin Barbarian, which had clearly puzzled Kasim and the others, must’ve also also had to do with the Goblin King. Probably scouts sent out by it, or a hunting party.
“You could say that. Soldiers brought us here, pointed to the ground, and told us to build. We made fields, dug a well, and made houses . . .”
“They protected us from beasts and monsters and lent us tents and blankets till the village was finished. The food was bad and there wasn’t much of it, but they shared that too. We’re also exempt from taxes for five years. But it’s still been hard.”
Listening to Kasim and Festa describe everything, it sounded even harder than Vandal had been expecting. The villagers had done all the work in terms of making houses, wells, and other infrastructure.
“Hey, it’s better than being a day laborer in the slums. Don’t complain too loudly or that’s where you’ll end up.” Zeno’s comment made it clear that things could indeed be a lot worse. “Not to mention, you’ve clearly seen worse than us, Vandal! Sorry about these two. They can be a bit slow.”
“It’s no matter,” Vandal replied. “I’ve eaten pretty well, thanks to my mom.” He had been so desperate for food that he slurped worm soup once or twice, sure, but he wasn’t going to get into that.
They walked on for about three hours, talking about the adventurers’ academy and other facts about the Heartner Domain. Then they reached the village.
The Seventh Pioneer Village had a population of 300, putting it somewhere between small and medium sized in the scale of Ramda settlements. Humans were the most prevalent, making up about half the population. The rest included beastmen, dwarves, and giantlings.
The longer-lived races that tended to create their own unique culture, such as elves, dark elves, and dragonlings, also tended to make their own settlements. While they might be seen in human towns, they were rare in villages like this. That held true even in the case of refugees, and members of such races from the Saulon Domain had found homes with their own kind. The giantlings here were also from the Saulon Domain, so they had nothing to do with Talosheim.
The houses in the reclamation village were all low and flat and didn’t look especially sturdy. But considering they had been made by the people living here, Vandal thought they did a good job. He was told that, compared to the five other pioneer villages in the vicinity, this one had the largest population.
“Can I ask,” Vandal inquired on that topic, “why this is called the Seventh village, when there are only six?”
“The First Pioneer Village couldn’t keep going, so they abandoned it,” Kasim replied. “They did their best, but the water just dried up. They dug wells, but nothing.”
Life was not easy for humans on this world; that much was sure.
“First things first, anyway. Let’s collect on these ears.”
With that, Kasim led Vandal to the only place of commerce in the village. It was simply called the General Store, but it also served as a tavern, a local branch of the adventurers’ guild, and even an inn if anyone was looking for a bed. To survive in this village, it seemed you needed your fingers in as many pies as possible.
No one really paid much attention to Vandal, suggesting people passed through fairly often. He had been curious about the villagers’ reactions to him, but then he saw a shrine with a stone marked with the holy seal of Alda, which definitely caught his own attention—
“Ack! Kasim, there’s something behind you!” The owner of the General Store was pointing at Vandal, who had become a “something.”
“. . . Hello.”
“Uwah! It spoke?! Someone! Call the priest!”
His humble greeting was met with this. It all felt a little extreme, even for a far-off part of the countryside.
“Hold on, mister! He’s no ghost!”
“I know you need the customers. Don’t turn one away!”
“There are reasons for this! Just calm down and hear us out!”
The others hurriedly tried to soothe the owner of the General Store, who went briskly back inside. It was at this point that Vandal finally realized people barely realized he was there unless Death Attribute Allure had an effect on them. The reason none of the villagers had commented on Vandal’s presence was simply because they hadn’t noticed him.
“Sorry about Dad. He can be pretty dumb sometimes.” This comment came from Lina, the only daughter of the owner of the General Store and the manager of the adventurers’ guild branch located inside it. She was the typical cheerful, folksy—no, rather, she was just a village girl who had taken the adventurers’ guild exam and was now running the branch for them.
In small villages, the presence of actual adventurers had a large bearing on whether the village itself was going to last. They had no choice but to open some kind of guild, even if it was only in a small space rented from the only commercial facility around.
“It’s fine,” Vandal lied through his fangs. “I’m used to it.”