Villagers and Oil
A subtle tension filled the air around us. Did he help me? Although the thrown club was ignored.
"Thank you."
I should probably at least show some gratitude. However, the battle isn’t over yet. Likely, other monsters are still around.
"Guards, survey the area and deal with any remaining monsters."
"Half the unit will stay in the village and defend it. The rest, form into small groups and sweep out any monsters."
"Unnecessary. All the monsters are dead."
The young man pointed to the outskirts of the village. Though it was quite a distance, something is piled up over there.
I took out my binoculars and checked the location. There lay an enormous heap of monsters—enough to be called a mountain of corpses. It must mean he defeated that many monsters without anyone noticing. A guard also verified this through their binoculars and gasped. For the guards here, wiping out so many monsters in such a short time without being noticed was almost impossible. It’s safe to say he’s quite a skilled fighter—perhaps even stronger than my brother.
"Doug, it’s Doug! You came to help."
As I caught my breath, Marza emerged from a group of villagers. She held a bow and was lightly armored.
It seems the young man’s name was Doug.
"Marza, who is he?"
"Oh, right. I haven’t explained about him yet."
The young man’s name was Doug. He had quite a remarkable background.
Doug was born in this very village... Tarol Village, but at the age of five, his family perished in a monster attack. This raid seemed to have severely impacted the village.
They searched desperately, but only Doug’s body wasn’t found. The people of Tarol, united as they were, kept searching for him, hoping he might be the only survivor.
Yet no matter how hard they looked, he was never found, leading them to believe he’d been taken as food by the monsters. So the search was eventually called off.
However, ten years later, Doug was found alive in the monster forest. It seems he was raised by the very monsters that abducted him.
This was a rare occurrence. There are tales on Earth of children raised by animals, but this is far less likely.
Doug was raised by monsters. However, his parent-monster was eventually killed by another monster group. In a fit of rage, he annihilated the group, and a villager who happened to be gathering wild herbs nearby witnessed it and brought him back to the village.
"At that time, Doug had forgotten language and hardly remembered us. But he never let go of the accessory his mother had given him at birth.
We have no choice but to live in this forest. The forest is deep, and it’s impossible to protect the children and women while going out. So we villagers always help each other. It was difficult, but through repeated contact, we taught Doug that we weren’t his enemies."
Doug must have remembered something of the village. Although he was uncontrollable at first, he gradually became familiar with the villagers, and now it seems he exchanges goods and keeps in contact with them.
The villagers, too, didn’t abandon Doug, who had managed to survive. Although he had changed, they accepted him as a transformed friend. In turn, he opened his heart to them somewhat and started helping them from time to time. Of course, the village has been properly compensating him.
Doug’s weapons were made from the fangs of powerful monsters, and he didn’t originally wear clothes. Now, he even dresses similarly to the villagers… although it’s strange because people here typically just wear fur.
"Village Chief… the knife broke. Sorry."
"I see. I’m sorry… but we don’t have anything better to offer you right now. We’ll try to find something, it will be of a bit lower in rank, but still worthwhile."
Looking closely, the two knives Doug holds were in poor condition. It seems that the village’s crafting techniques weren’t sufficient to bring out the material’s full potential. My Master could make them last several times longer.
Me? Biological weapons are out of my jurisdiction. And dismantling is forbidden. Alicia says it would “lower my dignity as a princess,” so that’s out.
But without a weapon? Hmm, interesting. Maybe I should ask him for a little performance test.
Alicia seemed to have guessed my thoughts and turned to face me, clutching her head. She must have understood by now that I’m not inclined to follow orders in situations like these. Besides, it won’t be as dangerous as my Big brother’s. His sword is simply too powerful; it’s hard to nullify, and it cuts through almost everything, which is why it’s classified as high-risk.
Even a holy sword would likely struggle against that sword. Holy swords often possess elemental properties, granting an advantage against magic. They disrupt and nullify magic formations. However, Big brother’s sword is so strongly fused with its mana that it’s difficult to dispel—so much so that even I can’t cancel out the magic within the blade.
And so, I unsheathed two large daggers: Gengetsu and Goutai.
Gengetsu can extend its blade using repulsive force, creating an invisible edge that makes it hard for the opponent to gauge its reach. It’s a pitch-black knife.
Goutai raises the wielder’s body strength to that of steel, offering defense equivalent to wearing full plate armor.
"Here, I will give you these."
Doug cautiously took the knives from me, gave them a light swing, and then threw them at a nearby tree. The blade of Gengetsu pierced the tree down to the hilt. Testing out the magic embedded in it, he seemed to grow increasingly pleased with it over the next few minutes. He held it carefully, in a reverse grip... so that’s how he preferred to hold it.
"You're a good guy. I'll stick with you."
"Alright, understood~ Now, let's have a little chat with your new brothers."
"Just shut up and follow me."
At light speed, guards teleported between us, grabbed Doug's shoulder, and dragged him off somewhere. Impressive—what strong coordination they had.
"You're a friend!"
After about 30 minutes, Doug returned, and he seemed… well, changed. His movements felt... more human, I thought.
I treated the wounded while waiting for him. There weren't too many injuries.
"I apologize, Princess. Educating this one may even prove challenging for Madame herself."
"That's fine; if it's not a formal setting, I didn’t mind."
I was there on official business, but there weren’t any fussy nobles around, so it was no problem. Besides, if I fussed over rank and titles, most of the citizens I knew would be in trouble.
Come to think of it, those aristocrats in Parliament had been demanding positions in the air force... or rather, I heard they were trying to petition for control of the entire air force. By then, Father and Big brother were probably scolding them. Even if they petitioned me, it was my Father who recognized the positions and held the appointing rights. There was no point in appealing to me.
"By the way, I heard there’s oil here?"
With the treatment done, I asked about the oil, which was the original purpose of my visit, and the villagers froze.
"U-umm, you mean that Devil's Liquid?"
Marza, looking pale, trembled as she spoke.
"Yes, exactly. We have a use for it, so I came to acquire some."
"That's... our village law had long forbidden any dealings with it. For some reason, it ignites easily... if a fire starts in the sealed area, it might never be extinguished, so no one dares approach."
It seemed that even their ancestors had tried to find uses for it. However, due to static electricity and other factors, the oil had a tendency to ignite, leading to frequent fires that they couldn’t control.
After several devastating fires, a mage sealed off the place where oil could be found so no one would approach it again. Luckily, the fires didn’t spread to the extraction sites. That stuff burned endlessly until it was depleted. Even on Earth, oil fields on fire were no easy task to extinguish. With magic, it should have been simpler to remove oxygen and snuff out the flames here, though it was still an advanced spell.
"Don't worry. There won't be a fire. I just need you to show me the way. It's necessary for the kingdom's development."
"... Understood. It's on the outskirts of the village, so we’ll be there shortly."
With Alicia and some guards, I headed toward the village outskirts. Doug seemed eager to do some mock combat with the guards. Quite lively, especially just after a battle.
The village... looked pretty shabby. Abandoned fields were common here. The population must have been dwindling. When this settlement was established, there were about 1,000 settlers plus guards, but I only saw about 300 people. With monster attacks, they probably couldn't sustain the farmlands.
However, thanks to their wild instincts, the villagers seemed to supplement their diet with monster meat and other resources.
"This is the place."
After about a 30-minute walk, we arrived at a roped-off area. It was clearly marked as off-limits, but what caught my attention was the magic surrounding this place.
Analysis revealed a sustained spell adding weight to prevent the oil from surfacing. It was a primitive magic tool, but the magician who made this must have been of an outstanding skill. Even after so many years, it hadn’t weakened in the slightest.
"How do you maintain this?"
"We just place stones taken from monsters in the hollowed part of this rock."
"Magic stones?"
Stones from monsters... there shouldn’t have been anything other than magic stones that fit that description.
"What's that?"
It seemed they’d forgotten about magic stones over time. They probably lost any use for them. They said magic users died out here several decades ago, so there were no magicians in this village. Although there were plenty of ki users and other semi-magic users.
"It's a monster core that generates mana. Are you just discarding them?"
"Is that so? We've been storing them in the barn as per tradition, but... they just take up space since we didn’t know what to do with them."
Since they were used for crafting magic staves, they were useless without magicians. Judging by this, though, they must have had a large stockpile. Thanks to me, the demand for magic stones had been steadily rising. I’d buy them later.
"What do you think?"
"It’ll gush out as soon as the seal is lifted. We'll handle the extraction, so just keep the gate open."
It was fine to leave this task to the clones. Preparations had already been made, so they could test the oil quality and store a certain amount in the Treasury. The magic would take care of the rest automatically.
The clones were independent, so sometimes they acted unpredictably... I wondered why mine differed from Eibon’s. His hardly varied, but mine each seemed to have distinct personalities.
Some were unnecessarily enthusiastic, while others just slept. According to Eibon, "It's simply a reflection of the young lady's nature, so it's difficult to say. Humans can be lazy or diligent. I’ve eliminated such emotions with magic; intellectual curiosity is my sole focus."
However, he hadn’t forsaken all worldly desires. He recently caused trouble at the castle, disrupting the decorum, and was now undergoing correction with the knights. Playing tricks on the maids was a privilege reserved for me. Such trespasses weren’t to be tolerated. Even though I’d acquired Helios, he was surprisingly ineffective. I wondered why he was so weak.
"Alright, I’ll return to the ship and report to Father about this situation and Marza's title."
"Umm, is the royal capital nearby?"
"Not at all, but I have a communication device. Also, I need to report on the aristocrats who abandoned their citizens here and submitted false reports."
The Parliament was already loud enough, and now this bombshell had come to light. The government was going to be furious. Not my problem, though. I’d leave those annoying matters to Father and my Big brother. They didn’t expect that kind of competence from me anyway.
With that thought, I headed toward the airship that had descended back into the square.
What do you think about this chapter?
