However, Zen had no idea what his siblings were thinking.
“Todd Village really does put me at ease.”
“There’s truly no place like home.”
“Man, it makes me sleepy...”
Zen, Elysia, and Keel were all relaxing. It was the day they’d returned from Alona City.
Zen and Elysia were wrapped up in Keel, who was curled up in front of the living room fireplace. It was warm and fluffy.
March was already just around the corner. Zen wanted to stay like this and take it easy until spring, though he knew that was wishful thinking.
“Ms. Donna was thoughtful as always.”
“Mr. Kulzawa’s fish were delicious too.”
Keel only yawned.
Zen and Elysia were both full, and they started dozing off a bit, lured in by Keel’s drowsiness.
Mina had brought them home by carriage, and they’d reached Todd Village past noon. The house had been empty for several days, so naturally, the fireplace and stove were unlit. Zen thought it’d be a bit of a pain to start going around relighting everything.
That was when Donna and Kulzawa from next door had paid them a visit.
“We saw that you’re back, Mr. Zen? I bet you’re having trouble since you don’t got any fires going. I brought a stick of smoldering charcoal.”
“You haven’t had lunch yet either, I bet. We stewed some fish, so how about you have some?”
They were incredibly kind and thoughtful. Starting a fire from scratch using a tinderbox was hard work, so Zen really appreciated not having to do that.
The carp, caught by Kulzawa and prepared by Donna, was delicious. Zen had thoroughly enjoyed the Alona carp he’d eaten on their trip, but once he had a taste of the carp from the old familiar Anett River tributary, he couldn’t help exclaiming, “Yes, this is the stuff!”
It hadn’t even been half a year since they’d come to Todd Village, but in his heart, he already considered it his second home.
“We returned one day earlier than planned, but that might’ve actually been for the better,” Zen said. They were originally supposed to have done more sightseeing in Alona City the day after the birthday party, but since they’d arrested Stoga and needed to hand him over to Cummel, they’d been forced to cut their trip short.
On the way home in the carriage, Zen, Elysia, and Mina took turns whining about how it was such a shame they couldn’t do more sightseeing.
However, Elysia, being someone who was good at finding the positives, said something quite deep. “Well, we already enjoyed it enough. It may be better to treat traveling the same as eating—stop before you’re completely full.”
“Fishing for Alona carp was fun...” Zen sighed.
“And it was fun to wear a dress and dance with you, father.”
As they looked back on their trip while relaxing at home, their cheerful conversations were also kind of nice.
And while he remained in that happy mood, Zen departed to the world of dreams with Elysia.
“Mr. Zen, I heard you’re back?!”
“Please help us!”
“The chief collapsed, and we haven’t been able to do anything around here!”
The sudden sound of knocking and the sad cries on the other side of the door woke Zen up. This was a complete surprise.
“Okay, what is going on...?” Zen couldn’t ignore it, so he headed to the front door. Of course he was greeted by his three coworkers, Max, Anna, and Namnam.
“We all calculated and recorded the estimates for the potato harvest this year in the account books, right?”
“However, right after you went to Alona, we discovered a serious error!”
“I’m sorry! It was my fault! I made a huge miscalculation!”
“At the chief’s instruction, we immediately went to rewrite the account books, but that led to all of us doing overtime every day.”
“The chief was so busy that it made him dizzy, and he collapsed from overwork.”
“He took the responsibility of cleaning up after my mistake, saying it happened because he hadn’t done his job as supervisor well enough, but he pushed himself too far!”
“We lost even more manpower, so we have no idea what to do anymore!”
“We know you’re supposed to still be off tomorrow, so we feel bad, but could you please help us?”
“I’m sorry, I’ll make up for it sometime!”
“We’ll work hard too!”
“It’d be super helpful if you could give us instructions in the chief’s place too. You can do that, right, Mr. Zen?”
The three of them took turns explaining, and Zen got an understanding of the situation.
“Oh my, it sounds like they really need you, father.” Elysia, who’d come to the entrance behind him, was smiling proudly. Those words and this situation somehow gave him déjà vu. Something like this had happened when they’d redone the New Year’s festival too.
Just as he thought that, he heard another voice.
“I’m sorry, Sir Zen. Could you assist me at once? It’s urgent!” Mina abruptly rode into the yard on horseback, her sorrowful cries reaching his ears. She was supposed to have returned to Nazalf City with the carriage and coachman after dropping Zen and the others off at home. That meant something must have happened that sent her immediately back to Todd Village alone.
“Did something happen in Nazalf City?” Zen asked.
“While I was away, my father was setting me up for marriage without asking me!”
“That’s something you should handle yourself!”
“Please don’t be so cold! He looked really menacing and told me, ‘I haven’t said anything about the way you’ve been living your life, but I need you to get married this year.’ I don’t know what to do!”
“I mean, it’s not like I don’t get how you feel, but—!” Zen didn’t know what to do either!
As Zen was at a loss, Elysia said, “She’s a friend we just took a trip together with. What’s wrong with helping her? However, please don’t do something so cliché like pretending to be her boyfriend.” It was hard to tell whether she was really supporting Mina, or if she was actually smiling.
However, in truth, Zen couldn’t be heartless. It was hard to ignore a problem in front of him.
“Help us, Mr. Zen!”
“Please help me, Sir Zen!”
“Ugh, fine, I understand! Organize everything that needs to be done and order them by priority. We’ll clear up the most urgent matters first!”
Once again, everyone was depending on Zen.