At Long Last, We Arrive in Zenas Village
“Fwaaaah. We fiiiiinally made it.”
“Niichama, really!?”
“Aniue, can you see the village!?”
Hearing my words, Tiffany and Zeke immediately reacted from inside the carriage.
Since I had nothing better to do, I'd been allowed to sit beside the driver and stare at the scenery the entire time, but…
“Yeah, I can see it now. The frontier territory of Zenas.”
““Waaah~””
The two happily opened the window and looked in the direction the carriage was heading.
It had been a long journey getting here.
We'd stopped in towns three times along the way. Exhausted from the trip, we'd stayed three nights in each before resuming our travels.
Far exceeding the estimate of around twenty days, it had already been a full month since we left the Spanberg Barony.
And now, finally... finally...
“Niichama, you're a liar!”
“Huh?”
“It's still *so* far away!”
“Well, you can see it, can't you?”
““Liaaaar~!””
Come on. You can see it. Sure, it was just a tiny speck on the distant horizon, but still.
“Hahaha. Bouchama, Jouchama. At that distance, we'll arrive in less than thirty minutes.”
“Eh, really!?”
“It's that close?”
“Yes. If it were still hours away, you wouldn't be able to see it with the naked eye.”
Our longtime coachman, Sedaston, stepped in to help me out.
Whew. Looks like the two of them were in a better mood now.
“Still, there really aren't any trees.”
“Yeah. There's barely any grass either.”
I could hear the two talking behind me.
This place was known as barren land. If trees were growing everywhere, nobody would call it barren.
Still, the mountain to our right had patches of green.
Just as the Chancellor had said, that greenery seemed concentrated higher up the mountain, especially on the western side.
“That mountain doesn't seem all that tall.”
“Indeed. But... climbing it would be risking your life.”
“Looks like you'd have to scale sheer cliffs.”
There were no slopes at the base. It rose straight up into a steep cliff face.
And the town was on the mountain's eastern side from where we stood. Trees on the west side, none on the east.
What exactly caused that difference?
The mountains stretched far to the west, growing taller the farther they went. That mountain must have been the very end of the range.
As I pondered that, we finally arrived at Zenas.
Yeah… Yeah… This was even more run-down… than I'd expected.
“Ni-Niichama.. is this a village?”
“U-Umm... a village... no, maybe a settlement?”
There couldn't have been more than thirty buildings.
All of them were made of stone.
One house was significantly larger than the others. That was probably where the lord… well, there hadn't actually been a lord here before, only a government official stationed by the kingdom, had lived.
Incidentally, the official was already gone. One of the knights who arrived ahead of us had told us so.
No handover, no explanation, nothing. How irresponsible could you get?
More importantly... none of the villagers came out to greet us.
Were they all working in the fields or something?
“Alright, everyone. We're carrying the luggage inside. Give us a hand.”
“Otouchama, the house is tiny.”
“Tiffany. Building large houses here is extremely difficult. And even if it seems small, compare it to the homes people here live in. Is it really that small?”
True.
Compared to our old mansion, it was *tiny*.
But compared to the other houses, it was definitely large. Larger even than the homes of ordinary townsfolk back in our former territory.
“Tiffany. If the house is smaller than before, that means Chichiue and Hahaue’s bedroom will be closer. The dining room, kitchen, and bath too.”
“The toilet will be closer too.”
Zeke's unnecessary addition earned him a stomp on the foot from Tiffany.
“S-Small houses... have good points too, then.”
“Haha, exactly. Come on, let's help unpack.”
“Okaaay.”
Around forty dwarves had come here from the barony, the miners and workshop workers, along with their families. Then there were around fifty knights and roughly twenty family members accompanying them. Add in the servants who had worked at the mansion, and a total of one hundred and thirty people had migrated here to the frontier territory of Zenas.
I didn't know the village's original population, but I'd bet it had more than doubled overnight.
“First, we need to build housing as quickly as possible.”
“Agreed, Chichiue.”
“This village uses stone bricks instead of timber. We dwarves can build with that. And if the lad helps out, the work'll move along real quick.”
“Really, Boss? Of course I'll help.”
Dwarves really were dependable.
Until then, we'd set up tents within the lord's estate grounds for the knights to stay in.
The carriages would also serve as temporary sleeping quarters, and the remaining people would stay inside the house.
For the time being, our entire family had decided to sleep in a single room.
“Still, what gives? Not a single resident came to greet us.”
“Mmm. Maybe... we're not welcome.”
“Huh? What's that supposed to mean, Baron?”
Father showed Boss and me a notebook he'd found inside the house.
“Pages... have been torn out.”
“Is this a ledger? If pages were ripped out, then there must've been something written there they didn't want the Baron seeing.”
Something they didn't want Father to see.
In that case, it was probably how the funds sent by the kingdom had been spent.
From the outside, this place looked simple—, just a larger stone version of the other homes.
But inside? What a surprise.
There were some pretty expensive furnishings here. The furniture alone looked like it cost a fortune.
“Looks like they enjoyed spending the kingdom's subsidy money.”
“That's probably it. To the villagers, government officials and nobles probably aren't all that different.”
(The new lord will probably be the same as the last one.) That was probably what they were thinking. But that wouldn't do.
“Chichiue. How much food do we have left?”
“Well, we were traveling with a rather large group. We brought enough supplies to feed everyone for quite some time even after relocating.”
“Not much alcohol, though.”
“Well, you'll have to endure that part.”
In that case, there was only one thing to do.
“Let's throw a welcome party for ourselves.”
What do you think about this chapter?
