STUNNED is the first thing I feel after landing near the village.
The fields are desolate husks, and the villagers’ homes are falling apart. Can people really live in a place like this? I do sense some life. People are holding their breath inside those crumbling sheds. Though their numbers are small…
As I’m observing the desolated place, I sense someone move, and I turn my eyes toward them.
A skinny boy, about ten years old, is poking the ground with a thick tree branch.
Is he a villager? He’s the first person I’ve seen outside.
When we step closer, the boy turns around and eyes us suspiciously. His body is withering away, and the dark-brown hair that’s common among Gaeans falls in tatters past his shoulders. Soot covers his young face. His ravaged eyes look at us for all of a second before he turns away and starts poking at the ground again.
“What did you come for? Find another place to hit if you’re bandits. There’s nothing left to steal from this village,” he mutters in a dry and cracking voice while he continues playing in the dirt.
“We’re not bandits. We don’t want to steal from you… What are you doing anyway?” I ask.
“Tilling the field.”
“Tilling the field? You’re trying to turn over the dirt with just a branch?”
“I am” is all he says and then silently thrusts the stick into the ground and digs up the hard dirt.
“…You don’t have a hoe or any other farming tools?” I venture.
What the boy has is just a stick that’s far from suitable for plowing soil.
“The wooden farming tools left in this village quickly rotted and no longer work.”
The tools were made of wood that rapidly decomposes? I frown. They don’t have any made with iron or copper? Or decay-resistant lumber?
“Lady Elle,” Jasper calls my name when I fall silent. He’s looking at the boy thrusting his stick into the ground over and over again with a sorrowful expression. “Iron and copper are generally used for Gaea’s farming tools as well. However, I heard the king confiscated all the tools from outlying villages because he believes Gaea needs more weapons to fight Analia. The kingdom is melting down the metal to create weaponry.”
Gaea confiscated them all for extra metal to make weapons? And gave back rotting wooden tools in their place?
I take another look around the village. Barren fields, stifling, stale air. And most notable…
“Doesn’t there seem to be a serious lack of people? Not enough villagers compared to the number of houses,” I observe out loud.
“Bandits pillaged the village a while back,” the boy responds without looking at me.
“They did? Then were most of the villagers killed by bandits?”
“Some were killed. But most are gone for another reason. The majority of men left alive became bandits themselves. Bandits took everything from this already poor place. The men left to pillage another village in order to get back what was taken from them. And then they never came back.”
My mind ceases to function for a whole second because of what he said. But I carefully pick my words to make sense of it.
“…They left to attack an innocent village to get back what was taken?”
“They did. We were unjustly robbed. So it doesn’t matter if we rob others…is what my pa said,” the boy says, looking at me again.
Hatred burns in his sandy-brown eyes, stealing my breath away.
“…You didn’t go with them?” Julius asks.
The boy furrows his brow until deep creases form and the flames of hatred burn even brighter in his eyes.
“Like hell I’d go! Pa was hella wrong! Just because someone stole from you doesn’t give you the right to steal from someone else!” he declares with an edge of disgust as the setting sun frames him from behind.
He’s so bright I have to squint. But I can’t tear my eyes away from him. This boy with his unkempt, matted hair and filthy clothing is absolutely beautiful.
I want him. Whatever it takes, I want him. This is a familiar feeling. I felt the same way when I kidnapped Canna and Jasper and the rest.
“…Hey, boy, do the rest of the villagers feel the same as you?” I ask.
“Probably. Only women, children, and the elderly are left anyway… What about it?”
I face the suspicious boy with a welcoming smile. “I like you, boy! Say, would you like to come to another village?”
“Huh? Do you know what you’re asking? If I could’ve gone somewhere else, I would’ve long ago—what’s with you people anyway? What did you come here for if you’re not bandits?” The deeply distrustful boy turns a skeptical eye on me.
Hey, don’t jump to conclusions! I’m not scheming anything evil. Oh, but I guess I haven’t told him who we are yet. He’ll relax once I do.
I clear my throat and plant my hands on my hips.
“I haven’t introduced myself yet, have I? Listen and rejoice, boy! I’m the mayor of a village brimming with love, courage, hope, kindness…and whatever other super awesome feels there are! I love Elle Village most! And Elle Village loves me most! For I am the grand sorceress Elle Falmil Gracedane! So set your mind at ease, for I am here to make you happy!” I proclaim, head held high, chest puffed out.