“Once you’re done getting ready, the village chief wants to see the two of you.”
The village chief had already summoned me to her manor; after working in the fields, I dressed up to go see her. But just then, Gimul came over and informed us that my wife and I were both wanted. If this was a discussion with the chief and her retinue about how to handle my situation going forward, I guess I could understand why she wanted Cassandra to come. But it felt like something else was up.
Cassandra and I exchanged glances, then I told Gimul, “We’ll be right over.”
I couldn’t help thinking of Ossandra. Maybe the village chief wanted to make the situation clear to me in her own terms.
I asked my new wife what she thought once she was ready to go out. She flushed, coughed awkwardly, then said quietly, “That did happen, yes. But Ossandra never managed to lay a finger on me.”
“I know. I was just a little worried that—it’s so stupid, I know—maybe you really weren’t happy being with me.”
“Shooter…”
“Hm?”
Cassandra’s eyes were cast down, but she spoke with conviction. “Are you sure it’s not you who’s unhappy being married to me? I’m the only daughter of an impoverished hunter, with no family connections, and, um. I also don’t look like… like Nishka does. You know. And maybe you weren’t satisfied with what happened last night.”
I could hardly believe she was saying these things. “Don’t be ridiculous! I feel lucky to have you as my wife, Cassandra.”
“Kweee!”
“And Basil agrees—don’t ya, buddy?”
“Th-thank you for saying that. Really.”
“No, don’t thank me. Not for that. This whole time, I just kept wondering if you wouldn’t have been happier marrying Ossandra.”
Cassandra, dressed in her peasant shift with a poncho thrown over it, sat on the edge of the bed and gazed at me, blushing. “Ossandra and I are cousins,” she told me with finality. “Nothing more. He’s a good person I felt like I could trust—or…I used to feel that way. But the village chief and the adults in a family are the ones who decide on marriages. I’m not unhappy about what happened.”
“Are you sure?”
“Y-yes, I am. Sometimes I feel ashamed when you watch me do disgusting things, but…”
She was probably talking about the time I watched her using the chamber pot while we were in jail.
“C’mon. We’re together. I’m gross, you’re gross, everybody’s gross. We can be gross together.”
God, I loved her. But that just made it even harder to face her when she seemed so out of my league in so many ways. I dropped my head and told her I was sorry for bringing it up.
“—and Basil, could you quit nibbling on my fingers for one second?”
When we got to the village chief’s manor, the settler families were gathered behind it, wearing clothes for field labor and holding farming tools. They were heading out to work the new fields they’d been awarded, under the direction of the village chief.
“We have chosen the sites for your fields! You’ll be granted spots soon—”
I listened in while waiting for the village chief and Gimul to show up. In exchange for guaranteeing food and paying no taxes this year, the settlers were going to cultivate land on the western side of the village, which was on the other side of the river that Gintanen used to wash out her barn.
Smartly, the village was built alongside the river, which could accommodate a whole lot of growth, but they’d also had to spend many years digging irrigation canals encircling the entire settlement.
Although when I say canals, I’m more talking about man-made streams dug out by the manual labor available in this world. So, you know, narrow waterways about six feet wide.
“Do you think they called us here to help out?” asked Cassandra.
“Hmm. I’m not sure. It would make sense to ask me, but asking you to do such heavy lifting…? I dunno…”
She’d told me how she pushed herself a little too hard while I was gone and wrenched her back. I doubted that the people in the village would force her to do physical labor, knowing her present condition.
Just then, musclebound Gimul appeared behind us. “All right, you two, come with me. We have a different job for you.”
“Thank you for coming all the way out to the shack to get us, Gimul.” Standing beside me, my wife also dipped her head in a quick bow.
As we followed Gimul, out of the corner of my eye I saw some people in another group chatting with each other, holding sickles in their hands. It seemed this group was assigned to cut down weeds. They were the goblin laborers and pierced belly-button folks (that is, enslaved criminals) we brought with us from town. At the end of the sorry lot I saw one other familiar face. Through the shaggy beard, the unkempt hair, and the dirt, I recognized Ossandra.
I don’t know if she saw my surprise, but Cassandra wound her arm around mine uneasily and looked up into my face.
When Ossandra spotted us, he glared.
“What should I do in this situation?” I muttered to Gimul.
“Don’t look him in the eye if you can help it,” Gimul said. “That little font of horseshit loves to spout, and I’m sure he’s got a lot saved for you.”
We continued following Gimul and ignored the people cutting down the grass.
“Now that you two are here, we’d like to conduct a detailed survey of the area around the village to get working on that adventurer’s guild branch office.”
The handsome Camulla, alongside the adventurers who had escorted the settlers, and the two adventurers who had left Bulka with Gimul—Electra and Dyson—were all gathered with us, with Gimul standing at the center.
We were also joined by Wak’wakgoro, the new leader of the hunters who was in a damn good mood, our local wilderness expert Nishka the Scalesplitter, and a few of the more senior hunters. That one hunter from Bulka, the one with the animal ears, was also there.
With all these people, it seemed superfluous to get us—a newbie to the village like me and someone totally untrained like Cassandra—involved.
“You said you want us to make maps,” Wak’wakgoro said to Gimul. “But if we put all the hunters on this, then not a whole lot of hunting is going to get done. What should we do about that, Gimul?”