When our group returned to the village, the village chief ordered us to gather at her manor. She mainly called over the hunters, including Wak’wakgoro and Nishka. Of course, that included me and the new hunter Elpaco, whom my wife and I had agreed to let stay at our place.
“In three days’ time we’re going to hold a feast to strengthen our alliance with the bull-kin. We need to bring game that will reflect well on us at the feast. I want you all to collect an appropriate number of deer. Can you do that?” our village chief asked, settling into the armchair in her office as usual.
I had heard the entire exchange with the bull-kin chieftain, so I knew that he and the village chief had agreed that the bull-kin would bring the cattle they took so much pride in and we would provide venison.
The bull-headed apemen offering up their cattle as food still felt a little, uh, Hannibal Lecter to me, but if we were going to offer comparable fare, meat was the only way to go.
Some people in the village did have livestock, but since the minotaurs said they’d bring beef, we couldn’t also bring beef. The only thing on the same level might be pork, but as the village chief said, “I thought of using Gintanen’s pigs, but with all our new settlers to feed, if we slaughter the pigs now for such little gain, we’ll face food shortages.”
“Ah, yeah. How many deer, do you think?” Wak’wakgoro asked, wrinkling his nose and looking up at the village chief as she tapped her finger on the arm of her chair.
“I’d like the majority of us who were there today to attend. And since some influential people will be invited, we need to get some young women to come along. So counting all those people together, we’ll need enough deer to satisfy…one hundred people.”
“Hmm. In that case, I’d say we should catch between five and seven deer at minimum. We can make up the remainder with chickens and pigs. We’ll do as much as we can.”
“Understood. Good luck.”
Once the hunters had received their orders, they filed out of Alexandricia’s office, Wak’wakgoro and Nishka among them. I fell in at the end of the line and was just about to leave when the village chief called to me. “Shooter, you stay here a moment.”
Elpaco was right behind me, also intending to leave, but now we both stood in place.
“Leave us, beastchild. This is between me and Shooter.”
“Y-yes. Of course. Elpaco, go wait outside for me.”
“O-okay.”
Fuzzball looked at me uncertainly, then glanced over at Alexandricia before stepping out of the room. I watched him go until I saw the door fully close, then I turned back to face the village chief.
She had obviously kept me here with no one else present so we could have a private discussion. Was this it? Was this the reward? Should I do another head tilt? I felt my crotch rising from the dead in anticipation, but I fought the feeling down and managed to avoid pitching a tent in front of the woman who literally owned me.
“Is something on your mind?” Alexandricia asked.
“Well, uh, I was wondering why you asked me to stay behind.”
“Hmph. There’s no need for concern. I was curious, you see. I’ve been told that despite looking like an adorable young woman on the outside, that beastchild claims to be a boy. How odd.”
“Yep. I was a little surprised by it myself.”
“Gimul told me about it. And that you’re letting him stay at your house now?”
“Yes. I’m helping him get his new life in order.”
“Did Cassandra have anything to say about this?”
I smiled back at Alexandricia in response. We’d agreed to it as a couple, after all.
“Hm. I’ll have you know that while the settlers have priority on the empty houses in the village, there aren’t enough to go around. If you two really want to put him up, you’ll be inconvenienced until we get new houses built.”
“If the hunters don’t look out for each other, we’ll end up with some petty disputes about housing, I’m sure.”
Since the settlers had come to us, similar issues were playing out all over the village. Settlers with families had been granted the empty houses available. But who knew what they were doing with the goblin laborers and the enslaved criminals? Maybe they’d put them into barns like they’d done with me when I first arrived. I hadn’t known about this when I was in town, but apparently if we brought back too many people, they had planned to let the settlers shack up in the hunters’ huts, too.
“I’m glad you’re doing the village such a favor. I feel terrible forcing a newlywed couple to endure such an intrusion, but I hope you can be patient a while longer.”
“Oh, no. It would be much harder if we had to live with some slovenly guy. I’m grateful to have taken in Elpaco. I’m sure it’s easier on my wife this way, too.”
“Once this business with the bull-kin is taken care of, we’ll get to work on building new houses.”
“Certainly.”
“And once we have the scaffolding built, we can create the mud walls easily enough with earth magic. I belong to a spellcasting family, so you leave that part to me,” the village chief said with a wry smile.
Oh, right—Alexandricia and Yoi were relatives, after all. Both pants-wetting spellcasters, it seemed, and I remembered someone saying Yoi was particularly skilled with earth magic.
“And one other thing. I’ll need to borrow Cassandra for the banquet.”
“What does that mean?”
“Remember when I said we’d need to bring young women? I’m using them as serving girls. That should placate the bull-kin and put them in a good mood.”
“I see…”
“Don’t give me that look, Shooter. She’ll just be pouring drinks and making conversation. If anyone tries anything funny with her, that just gives us another card to play against the bull-kin chieftain.”