“Firstly, let me introduce myself. My name is Moll, and I am the onikin chieftain. We onikin have fought against the kingdom—your nation—for control of the grasslands over many long years. We engaged in many battles, and nearly as many wars, and these conflicts raged on. However, the onikin lost significantly fifty years ago. We lost a great many of our people and we were forced to flee. That is how the kingdom took control of this land.”
Though she had smiled at me earlier, Moll’s expression was stern as she spoke of her people’s history. Her eyes wavered as fifty-year-old memories resurfaced in her mind—the loss of the war weighed heavily upon her. I sat up straight as I listened to her story, then I asked the first question that came to mind.
“If you were forced to flee the grasslands fifty years ago, then...how are you still able to live here now?”
“That is simple,” replied Moll. “Some two or three months after we lost the war, we secretly returned.”
“And the kingdom hasn’t noticed you since?”
“The answer to that,” said Moll, pointing at her horn, “is this.”
Just what are those horns all about, anyway?
“These horns are capable of storing magic,” explained the chieftain, “and through that we can access power impossible for the hornless. One such magic is concealment, which we have used for the last fifty years to continue running and hiding from the kingdom.”
“That is...simply astounding,” I said. “But is it okay to tell me all of this? I came from the kingdom, after all.”
“But you are blue. If you were not, I would tell you nothing. What’s with that look on your face? Oh, am I right to assume that you still do not understand the meaning of ‘blue’? You’re so slow on the uptake I can scarcely believe it. One more magic we horned have access to is called soul appraisal. When we are faced with a presence that means us harm or enmity, we can read their threat through the color of the light our horns emit and the strength of that color.”
“Oh, I see. So blue indicates that I mean you no harm? But even then, telling me such secrets seems very careless.”
Moll’s lips curled into a grin.
“When someone means us no harm, our horns glow white,” she clarified. “Blue, you see, is a light that comes only from someone who will bring us good fortune—the extent of which is determined by the strength of that blue. If you held any enmity towards us whatsoever, or if you lied about anything, then your blue would have muddied and begun to turn red. But that did not happen even once—something I suppose we can attribute to your past. You have no desire to do anything save for blindly and foolishly living by the words of your deceased parents. It is a remarkable feat when one can do so to the age that you are now.”
“Should I...take that as a compliment?”
“What are you talking about? Of course I am complimenting you! I’ve lived a long life, I’ll have you know, and I’ve never met an idiot quite like you, no, I certainly have not.”
Moll cackled with laughter, but I still didn’t feel like she was complimenting me.
“In short, we are very fortunate to have a fool like you as the new lord of the plains. You appear to have no ties to the kingdom’s nobility, and you bear no ill will towards us onikin. Above all, you’re more than happy to treat us as your neighbors. We’re thankful. You see, there is only so far that our concealment magic will get us, and there is no way for us to expand while we are hidden.”
“Huh... But why are you so insistent on these grasslands?” I asked. “Why not just expand somewhere far from here, away from the reach of the kingdom?”
“A home is not an easy thing to abandon. That, and the baars we raise—the livestock upon which our lives are built—eat a lot of grass. There are not many places with such soft grass in such vast quantities, which makes this a difficult place to simply leave.”
“Well, I have no problem with the onikin people, nor do I mind you living on the plains. Expand your village as you wish. The officials told me only that I am to protect my subjects and raise money. Though admittedly, I still have yet to find even a single subject.”
If the onikin had gone to such trouble to live here, and if that was a sign of how much they valued the place, then I was fine with them being here. When I said as much to Moll, her face twisted in surprise.
“Hah...” she sighed. “You really are a fool! Did you not think to make any sort of bargain? To set any conditions? Oh, you are truly helpless! You have no home and no food, yes? In which case, we will prepare these things for you and provide you with some livestock. In return, we ask that you overlook our presence no matter what the nobility tells you. By overlook, I mean that you speak not a word of us to any of the kingdom’s people. Not even the king himself. We want you to gather your subjects and become a fine and respectable lord. If we lose you, we’ll likely end up with another useless idiot like the one who came before you.”
“I’ll of course see to my job as lord dutifully, and I was intending to let you stay anyway, so saying nothing is fine by me. But, wait, are you telling me there was a lord here before me?”
“There was. They had a house somewhere else, and that was where they lived. They would occasionally come to visit, but safe to say they were a vulgar, stupid sort.”
I noticed a gloom in Moll’s face, and it told me the previous lord likely was just as bad as she said. A tension even ran through Alna’s face when the previous lord was mentioned, and I had to wonder, what did they do?
But however curious I was, it seemed far better not to ask.
“Enough about past lords,” Moll continued. “Let us talk about the present and the future. As I said, we will give you a home. It will be smaller than this one, but...ah, yes, we will have it built near the river where Alna found you. We will also prepare for you a change of clothes and some everyday tools and items. As for food, we’ll provide you with a week’s worth of jerky. Then a pair of baars and...I will lend you Alna as your caretaker. The two of you will live together until you are accustomed to life on the grasslands.”
I was stunned into silence by the chieftain’s words, but Alna was about ten times more shocked. I could see it on her face and the trembling through her body.
“You do not know how to care for livestock, do you, Dias? Your house will also need to be looked after once it is built. There is much you will have to remember, including how to handle wild animals and how to survive without falling ill. Alna will teach you. Alna, I assume you are fine with the decision, yes? You are the one who brought an outsider into the village, so you will take responsibility for him.”
Alna’s eyes twitched and she was about to make a retort, but one look from Moll silenced her completely, and she reluctantly nodded.
“Then we are done,” said Moll. “Well then, my lord, let us work towards a bright future together.”
Our discussion had come to a close, and I acquired that which I had set out to find: a place to live and a source of food. I hadn’t expected to end up living with Alna, but I had heard that people in positions of authority were known to employ secretaries and maids and other sorts of help. I’d seen a lot of maids in the royal palace, so I decided I’d accept Alna in the same way. However, she wasn’t much like the maids I knew of. She was a little rougher and wilder. Nonetheless, I convinced myself that it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.