Somehow, This Water Tastes Salty...
“Hmm? Somehow, this water tastes salty...”
“It's saaalty~”
“I can't tell.”
The next morning, the water I drank with breakfast somehow tasted a little salty.
“I-I'll replace it right away.”
“Ah, it's fine. It might just be my imagination.”
I reassured the panicking maid.
There was no strange smell. Maybe the water quality was just a little different.
After breakfast, it was time to get to work.
We needed to quickly build homes for the people who had come with us from the barony.
And for that, we first had to decide where to build them.
When I headed into the village with the dwarves…
“Niichan, got a minute?”
The children from yesterday stopped me.
“Sure. What is it?”
“Umm... well... my old man said...”
“Your father?”
The children looked behind them.
In that direction stood an adult wearing a very obvious “Hey idiot, don't look over here!” expression.
Apparently he had business with me, but couldn't bring himself to speak directly, so he'd used the children instead.
“Boss. Could you look for some possible construction sites while I'm gone?”
“You sure you'll be fine by yourself?”
“Yes. It'll be okay.”
Parting ways with the dwarves, I followed the children over to the adult.
“Did you need something from me?”
“N-no, well... uh... let's see. Young Master, uh... it's your first time here, right? S-so I figured... I'd show you around.”
“Really!?”
Having a resident offer that was incredibly helpful.
“Me too! Me too! I'll help show him around, Touchan!”
“Y-yeah. Well then... let's start with the well.”
The well?
Showing someone around the village and starting with a well?
Then it clicked.
Yesterday, Chichiue had said it.
“Tell us what the residents need most right now.”
They probably couldn't bring themselves to say it directly.
And they likely thought it'd be easier to talk to a child like me.
“It's surprisingly deep.”
“Y-yeah. When I… no, when I first came to this village ten years ago, there was a lot more water in it, but...”
“You can speak normally if that's easier. The Dwarven master talks like that too.”
“I-is that so? But you're a noble young master.”
Well, if he felt that strongly about it, I wasn't going to force him.
When I peered into the well he'd shown me, the water surface was far below.
If there used to be more water, that meant the level was dropping.
“How far down is the water?”
“When we measured it about six months ago, it was fifty-eight meters.”
That's deep.
I had no idea how deep wells usually were in this world, but the Boss might know.
“Do you know how deep the water itself is?”
“We stuck a pole down there. At its deepest, about two meters. At its shallowest, less than one.”
“I see. I don't know much about wells, so I'll ask the Dwarven master later. But as an immediate issue, drawing water from something this deep must be difficult.”
When I asked that, the son nodded much more enthusiastically than the father.
“Do you help out around the house? That's admirable.”
“Heh-heh. Carrying water's no big deal.”
“Then maybe I'll ask you to do it every day.”
“Uwaaah!? N-no way!”
Hahaha.
Well, with a well this deep, it probably was a huge chore.
There was no pulley on the well.
Just a bucket tied to the end of a rope.
For now, maybe I'd ask Boss how pulleys worked and then create one through alchemy.
Though even with a pulley, it'd still be hard work.
I'd really like to make a pump.
Using that bamboo, I might be able to manage something.
“Umm... c-could you look at the fields next?”
“Sure. Let's go.”
The village was surrounded by a token wall, and the fields lay outside it.
“Shouldn't the wall be a bit sturdier?”
“Ah, well, you're not wrong. But we're short on manpower. Just working the fields keeps us busy.”
South of the Zenas frontier stretched a wasteland.
Beyond that lay a desert, and beyond the desert another wasteland.
The problem was in that wasteland across the desert.
“Have there ever been attacks from barbarians?”
“Yeah, there have.”
“There have!?”
A race known as barbarians lived in the wasteland beyond the desert.
They had horns growing from their heads and commanded monsters.
In other words, they were a race separate from humans.
Around three hundred and fifty years ago, they'd even fought a war against the Olfonse Kingdom.
If the barbarians ever invaded, Zenas's role was to alert the royal capital as quickly as possible, but… well, they clearly had bigger problems.
“Yep. They've come twice in the past ten years. But since they had to cross the desert to get here, even a small force could drive them off pretty easily. Besides, they get harassed by the people living in the desert too.”
People living in the desert?
“Umm, who exactly are these desert people?”
“Those guys... honestly, I can't tell whether they're good or bad.”
“Chico, be quiet. We call them the Desert Folk. We don't really interact with them much, but they don't attack us or anything. It's just...”
Just?
“They steal vegetables from our fields.”
“Eh... isn't that definitely a bad thing?”
“But they leave edible monster meat behind in exchange.”
Were they trying to barter?
If so, why not negotiate properly?
“And there are people even more troublesome than the barbarians.”
“More troublesome?”
“Yep. Bandits.”
Bandits? Out here?
As we walked toward the fields, I listened to the explanation.
Apparently a bandit gang shows up once or twice a year.
There hadn't been any around when we arrived, but there had still been about ten soldiers stationed here.
Those soldiers had left the village together with the official Boromiosi.
Apparently they had somehow managed to fend off the bandits.
Barbarians twice in ten years.
Bandits once or twice every year.
Yeah, the bandits sounded far more troublesome.
Before long we reached the fields, and the sight that greeted me was exactly what I'd expected.
Growing from the soil were vegetable leaves that looked ready to wither at any moment.
Even without knowing anything about farming, I could tell.
The soil was dry.
“You really don't have enough water, do you?”
“There's another well over here too, but... well, you'll understand once you see it. It's in even worse shape than the village well.”
“Let's take a look.”
There was a well at the far end of the fields.
When I peered inside, the water level was so low that I could faintly see the bottom.
Sigh... water, huh...
“Where does this place get its water from, anyway?”
“The water source? You mean where the water comes from?”
“That's right.”
“In that case, it's that mountain.”
Chico's father pointed.
It was the mountain east of the village.
What do you think about this chapter?
