I had seen him once in the capital, a long time ago. There was no doubt about it: This was really Lord Luke Arvale.
“Welcome. I’m Luke Arvale, mayor of this village.”
“I am Dant, Governor of the North.”
I dropped to my knee. “My deepest apologies for not coming to greet you sooner.”
Of course, I’d never really been told he was here, so it wasn’t my fault. But formalities were formalities.
Lord Luke smiled kindly. “It’s fine, really. You’re all very welcome here. Please take your time and enjoy your stay.”
After that, it was one shocking thing after another. The buildings were nothing like I’d ever seen before: long, rectangular structures stretching high and wide, not made of wood or stone, but something else entirely. Lord Luke told me the villagers lived in these buildings.
“They’re called apartment buildings,” he said.
“Apartment buildings?” I repeated.
The village itself was remarkably clean. In frontier settlements like this, it was common to see people relieving themselves in makeshift holes, which filled the air with an inescapable stench. But there was none of that here. The capital city of Liesen smelled worse than this, in fact.
Even more shocking, every home had something called a “flush toilet.” I’d never even heard of such a thing, let alone seen one. And the villagers themselves were clean too.
In most frontier settlements, people were lucky if they could occasionally splash themselves with clean water, let alone bathe. Everyone ended up reeking because there was just not enough water to go around.
But even though their clothes were ragged, these settlers looked freshly washed—spotless, really.
“Every home has a bath. We also have two public bathhouses,” Lord Luke explained.
“Two public bathhouses? And every home has a private one as well?” I asked, dumbfounded.
“Yes. We originally built one bathhouse, but it was so popular we added another,” Lord Luke said as if he were talking about throwing in another side dish for dinner.
Building a facility like that was no easy feat.
On top of all that, the villagers all looked incredibly healthy.
Maybe it wasn’t surprising, considering the size of the fields, but I hadn’t seen a single person who seemed malnourished.
And then there was the thing that stunned my elite guard: the massive skull hung on the front of the mayor’s residence.
“W-Wait... Is that a great boar?” I asked.
“Oh, yeah. Our hunting team brought it down in the forest,” Luke said with a nod.
“You hunted it? Forgive me, but are you sure it wasn’t already dead when you found it?”
“Ha ha... Well, I didn’t see the boar myself, but I did see the warped, steel greatshield that took the brunt of its charge.”
I turned to Bazara and murmured, “Could our best troops even pull that off?”
All the color drained from his face, and he gave a slow, emphatic shake of his head.
“M-Maybe they’re just bluffing...” he muttered to me.
“I certainly hope so...”
Deep down, I was beginning to regret ever coming here.
✦ ✦ ✦
I gave Dant and his men a full tour of the village. We walked around once, just enough to show them everything.
“Well, that’s just about it,” I said. “That’s our village.”
“L-Lord Luke, forgive me, but I must ask again: Are you truly saying all of this was built in just six months?” he asked.
“Yes. It was nothing but wilderness when I arrived,” I said, but he looked like he still couldn’t believe it. “It’s all thanks to my Gift. Village-Making.”
“Village-Making?”
“Yes.”
I gave him a simple explanation of how it worked.
Myria and Seren had made me promise not to talk about things like skills or leveling up, so I kept that part to myself.
“I see... So that’s why the marquess sent you out to the frontier...” Dant muttered.
“No, actually. I didn’t realize my Gift could do any of this until after I was sent here,” I said.
I wondered what would’ve happened if we’d found out back when I was still living at home. Maybe I wouldn’t have been exiled. But honestly, I was glad things turned out this way.
Life here was peaceful, simple, and fun. I really wasn’t cut out for the chaos and politics of wartime anyway.
Later, I asked the villagers to help me throw a big feast in the central plaza to welcome Dant and his entourage properly.
The women pulled out all the stops, whipping up a meal using orc meat and veggies from the fields.
“Th-This is delicious!” Dant exclaimed when he tasted it.
“I’m glad you think so. We grow all our vegetables right here in the village.”
“What about the meat?”
“It’s orc. We hunted it from the nearby forest.”
“Orc meat?!” Dant and the soldiers guarding him all exclaimed in unison, so surprised they nearly dropped their plates.
“It seems like there’s a healthy orc population in the forest, so we end up with a lot of meat. Please, eat as much as you like,” I said.
“Y-You hunt orcs frequently...”
“They have to be bluffing... It just has to be...”
They still seemed a little tense.
I figured a bit of alcohol would loosen them up eventually. I didn’t drink myself, but I’d heard the stuff from our brewery was really good.
✦ ✦ ✦
Brewery
>>A facility that produces ale. Boosts production speed and quality. Warning: Always drink responsibly!
It was definitely important not to overindulge.
Just then, Myria stepped forward to address the crowd. I had no idea what she was up to.
“We’ll be hosting an exhibition match featuring some of our most skilled fighters as entertainment for tonight’s feast!” she announced.
Um, what? Nobody told me about this...
But she did bring up a good point: An event like this would probably liven things up. I stayed back and watched as Barlatt and Peren, both of whom had the Gift of Sword Proficiency, stepped into the town square.
Then the fight began. Their blades clashed at speeds too fast to follow, captivating the crowd. Some people started cheering, and some even leaped to their feet to shout their support.
It was incredible. I’d seen them spar before, but they were definitely stronger than the last time I’d watched.
Hm?
I noticed that Dant’s guards had stopped eating.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Is the food not to your liking?” I asked out of curiosity.
“I-It’s not that at all! It’s delicious! We were just completely drawn in...” Bazara said. He frantically shook his head, his eyes bugging wide.
Well, I guess it made sense. As fellow warriors, it was only natural they’d be engrossed by a match like this.
“T-Two of them... Both have Sword Proficiency Gifts? In a village like this?” Bazara mumbled under his breath, probably trying to work out something only a soldier would notice.
The match ended, and then the next pair stepped forward. They started their own exhibition match in front of the cheering crowd as well.
“Wait... There are more Gifted here?”
As our population had grown, the number of Gifted villagers had naturally gone up in kind.
Roughly ten percent of my villagers had Gifts, which equaled about a hundred, including kids whose Gifts hadn’t been awakened yet. Of those, twenty-four had combat-type Gifts—nineteen total when you excluded the elderly and the kids who couldn’t yet use their Gifts.
Those combat-type Gifts included Sword Proficiency, Spear Proficiency, and Axe Proficiency, but also Martial Arts, Whip Proficiency, Bow Proficiency, Staff Proficiency, and even Grappling Proficiency.
Each Gifted villager stepped up one after another to showcase their unique styles. And since the drinks were flowing freely, the villagers only got rowdier.
“Holy crap, he’s swinging that whip like it’s part of his body!”
“Yeah! That’s the way! Take him down!”
“You’re so cool, man!”
Meanwhile, Dant and his men continued to gawk, speechless. Were they just focused, or was it something else? They looked a little too pale...
Once the fighters were finished, the villagers blessed with magic Gifts stepped forward. Apparently, they were going to put on a show next.
Magic-type Gifts were a lot rarer than combat ones. We only had eight villagers, including Seren, with those—only six if you took away the kids.
“M-Magic Gifts too? Just how powerful is this village?!”
“Everything okay? Still not to your taste?” I asked.
“N-No, it’s not that! I-I swear, everything is fine!” Bazara shook his head so hard I thought it might fly off his neck.
Yeah, they’re definitely not fine...