Chapter 526: Golden homeland 1
Before we all go together to the rural areas ……, Neia urges me to cast a spell.
“Let’s disguise ourselves as dirty-looking. As I thought when we were in the craftsman village, the people out there look too neat and tidy to be suspicious to the general populace”
“It’s true, they were all rags……”
Clothes are said to be rationed once a year by some amount from the center in exchange for the delivery of taxes. The rest is just redistributed from the relics of the dead, which means that the clothes of the people in this country are basically old clothes. This country does not have what could be called an aristocracy, so there is not much need for fancy clothes, and the number of weavers is small compared to weapon makers, and they are not treated well. In other words, people in this country basically wear second-hand clothes.
“Well, clothes don’t have to be clean to kill you……but you can relax if they are clean”
Apple, who purposefully cast an illusion of faded color and frayed tatters, looked down at the figure and let out a sigh.
“Apple-san, you should make your hair a little more unruly. I’ll just pin it up in one strand”
“Eh, ah, but Tetes-san’s hair is better”
“I’m fine. I don’t have a flashy style, so just letting my hair down a bit and looking a bit pungent is enough to give me a dull appearance. I still have a little bit of intelligence”
Tetes is making Apple’s hair look unfashionable. I, on the other hand, usually don’t dress so well, so if I made the whole thing a little dirty and wore a plain-colored cloak, that seemed to be enough to meet Neia’s standards.
“……Smithson-san?”
“What?”
“Well, I don’t mean to be rude……but you really are, you know, a commoner, aren’t you? I’d say you don’t shine”
“That’s really rude!”
Neia would rave about the perfection of the poor camouflage like, 「Uwa」. Ah, that’s right. Because we are common people. And Tetes nodded behind her.
“Actually, even though Maia-san and Laila-san’s clothes are in tatters, I feel like they’re not just freebies that don’t require any questions or answers. Master is truly a freebie”
“Don’t compare me to a dragon!”
“You’re a dragon rider, aren’t you?”
“I’ve told you many times, dragon riders don’t have to be better than dragons, okay?”
I mean….don’t ask me to shine in the beauty of dragons or elves’ standards.
“Should we get dirty too?”
“Alright, Emma. Let’s rub some of that dirt on our bodies”
Even the silver dragon siblings started to try to camouflage themselves, so I hurried to stop them.
“You guys just don’t have to go out there!”
Unlike Laila, Maia and the others who are careless about their clothes, they are wearing quite fine clothes, so I feel too bad if they get dirty with that kind of flirtation. No, they’ll probably tell me it’s something I don’t need to worry about.
After finishing preparations, we were carried by Ray, who had turned into a dragon and we headed upstream to the village. There were only six of us, including Emma, so we could fit in his two hands. And the flight took less than 10 minutes.
“A distance that would take a day if we walked……”
For a minute, Neia looked a little complicated. Maybe she thought we were taking it too easy. Regardless, the farming villages in the upper valley were as faded, poor and gloomy as the other Kalwin villages we had seen.
“……Someone died……or something?”
Nothing could be heard in the village except the sound of the river echoing through the valley. Such silence, no children’s voices, no adults singing or talking. Apple seemed to think that it might be because of the funeral she saw in the craftsman village, but she looked at Neia, but Neia shook her head slightly.
“Maybe someone’s dead, but that’s not very unusual”
“……Emm”
“It’s always like this. Whoever works there has pride and fun and I think the country outside is really happy. ……Even children can’t play around. Even adults can’t play around. Everyone is working, sleeping and waiting for tomorrow to come, while enduring hunger. That’s what rural communities in this country are like”
“…………”
Neia arrives at a house and knocks on the door.
“Is the village headman there?”
“Who is it? As you can see from the fields, the wheat is not yet harvested”
“Neia Grans……no. It’s Neia the fluff”
“……What?”
A rattling sliding door is pulled open and a scrawny elf emerges from inside the house. Neia took off her hat and gave him a slight nod.
“It’s been a long time”
“……Neia. No, Neia-sama”
“The seat of the hero has been taken by the younger generation, so there is no need for 『sama』 any longer”
Neia smiles at him and then introduces him to us.
“This is the village where I was born. And this is Vixen-dono, who has been the village chief here for 50 years”
“You……”
“I came from downstream with Neia-sama’s introduction. I would like to see some of the farmland”
Tetes took over for me and explained the situation. Or, rather, she was going to backbite me. This is a farming village. Unlike the craftsman village, which are close to the heroes because of the nature of their work, the dragon and other such things must not have been reported to them. If that is the case, who we are is a sensitive issue. By nature, only tax collectors, merchants and heroes are supposed to come here. If we insisted that we were guests of the royal family, we would not be able to explain anything and would be mistrusted.
“Farmland……? This is an ordinary village. There is nothing to see”
“It’s alright. We check every village the same way”
Tetes deceives the village chief by telling a lie without hesitation. The amazing thing about Tetes is that she doesn’t seem to be thinking or lying at all. Well……I feel it’s okay to investigate with impunity, but to throw fuel on the fire here and now, you know.
“I understand. I’ll tell the villagers. ……Neia than that. I thought you were dead”
“I was not dead. ……A year ago, I wandered far from the valley and was saved by a dragon……”
“What? By a dragon”
Neia also tells a lie. No, it is just barely a lie. It is true that she wandered far from the valley and it is true that a dragon played a role in her return. There is no direct connection, though.
“Is everything the same in the village?”
“Ban and Rag are dead. The heavy rains last fall caused a cliff to collapse and one of the houses was destroyed. ……That’s all in a year’s time”
“I see. I’m sorry to hear that”
“Ah. I guess Altres didn’t remember well”
The village chief and Neia say that much and pray silently for a while. Then the village chief smiles on his thin face and turns to us.
“It is Neia’s return after all. We have a small reserve. Allow me to invite you to dinner”
“Village chief”
“Let us show off a little, Neia”
The village chief says so, but judging from his emaciated appearance, poverty is not all that common. What is the matter?
“Then, we will call on you. We have something for you too”
Tetes said something salaciously unremembered again and smiled.
“So. Ray-san and Emma-san, could you bring us a couple of beasts that we can eat?”
“We?”
“That’s……however”
Tetes approached the silver dragon siblings at the exit of the village, but the siblings looked puzzled. Tetes looked at them strangely. They had been so cooperative. I couldn’t understand what was going on between the two of them. I glanced at them and asked Maia for an explanation. Maia looked at the two of them in a bored manner, then turned her gaze back to me.
“Andy-sama. Is it okay if I take care of that for you?”
“Can Maia do it?”
“Yes”
And then Emma rushes to intervene.
“No, I’ll do it. I’ll do it, but……”
“An incomprehensible woman. A nuisance”
“Shaa, a nuisance!?”
“Just go away”
“Blue dragon……you really have a bad personality!”
“Hmph”
……They are starting another meaningless fight. Then, Ray spreads his arms and appeals to me.
“We are following you. If you say so, we will fight against our own people. But is this girl’s request really under your will?”
“Ah……I see. That’s what it is”
“It is important”
The dragon moves with one heart and one righteousness. It never sides with the community. Was Tetes’ proposal my intention or irrelevant? It made all the difference to the dragon.
“Please. We don’t want any more poor people to starve because of us”
“I understand. Emma, I’ll go”
“Older brother……”
“You stay here in case they need you”
With that, Ray flew off over the cliff. We watched him go and then looked out at the wheat fields spreading out in tiers below the cliffs. From a distance, it looks like a rich harvest, but that’s only because I’m not an experienced farmer.
“I see. ……No, this is…….”
Tetes seems to be chanting a number of spells and proceeding with the investigation while checking her response. If you look at it from the side, you can’t tell at all.
“It shouldn’t be that difficult……I guess it’s different if you grow other crops. But if Master says so……”
I look at Tetes, who continues to write scarecrows on the ground while muttering to herself and I turn to Neia with the question I had earlier.
“Well, Neia, what’s fluff?”
“E, Emm?”
“You see, to the village chief”
That’s what she said when she introduced her name. Neia blushed and pulled down the brim of her hat, embarrassed.
“U, Umm……I still do, but when I was a child, my hair floated even more mussed than it does now……and that was my nickname”
“……You mean?”
“Yes”
“Did you often get lost in the fields and people would yell and look for you?”
“……W, Why do you say that?”
“Hahaha”
The beautiful blonde hair of Neia disappears amongst the golden wheat fields. Somehow, as I looked at the wheat field, where the ears of wheat were swaying vigorously despite the barren soil, I felt like I could see Neia’s childhood.